In an interview with Balai, the project's mentor, Lenise Vaz, said that it aims to recognize the work of small and medium-sized national entrepreneurs and to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs. The event is scheduled for March 24 next year at the National Auditorium in Praia.



"Anyone between the ages of 18 and 25 who has a registered business or organization can register and compete for the awards using the form available on Ujamaa's social networks," he says.



"We had already done an award of this kind at the launch of Ujamaa, but the selection of the winners was my choice, with this event we want other people to do it," he explains and adds that the process of selecting the candidates will be done by public and jury voting.



"After registration closes, a platform will be made available where the public and our judges will select the candidates who can be awarded on the day of the event. The weight of the public vote is 70% and the judges 30%," she adds.



According to the organizer, the entrepreneurs will compete in 10 different categories, namely in the food, health, tourism, arts, services, engineering & architecture, sports, aesthetics & beauty, education, social services and commerce sectors.



On the day of the event, the mentor explains that the selected candidates in each category will make an eight-minute pitch to talk about their initiatives and sell their idea. At the end of the presentations, both the judges and the public will vote on the best presentations and elect the winner of each category.



"On that day the weight of the votes will be reversed, the public will have a weight of 30% and the judges 70%. The panel of judges will be made up of three women and three men, who are also entrepreneurs, but who have been in the market longer and are mentors in entrepreneurship," she reveals.



As Lenise explained, in addition to the recognition trophies, the winners in each category will receive 10 days of "intensive immersion" for personal, spiritual and business development, with guidance from national and international mentors, as well as other benefits that "add value" to the winners' entrepreneurial journey.



Ujamaa is a project created in March 2022 and founded by Lenise Vaz, whose inspiration came from African ancestry and aims to encourage entrepreneurship in Cape Verde.



The National Entrepreneurship Award is part of the festivities celebrating the organization's first anniversary. Applications for the initiative have been open since October and close on the 29th of this month.



This article was originally published on the  Balai Cabo Verde  platform  - Balai .