KAMPALA – Nile Breweries Limited’s annual entrepreneurship campaign dubbed ‘Be A Millionaire’, is nearing completion following an intensive selection of the top 50 participants for the two-day business boot-camp that concluded yesterday at Royal Suites Hotel, Kampala.
‘Be A Millionaire’ which is now running for the second season themed “Last Man Standing”, has a prize kitty worth Ugx100M that will be spread among participants at varying levels. The nationwide five-week campaign is aimed at skilling aspiring youth entrepreneurs. It has traversed five regions including, the North, West, Central, East and South West.
Mr Noah Wandera, the Business Development Manager, Enterprise Uganda, while commenting about the process that narrowed the contestants from over 200 entries received countrywide to 50 indicated that confidence and self-drive to achieve business results ranked highest on the list of priorities.
He shared that they were looking for participants with the ability to present an excellent business case with comprehensive information, ready to scale up their business by taking advantage of the opportunity provided by the campaign.
“The entrepreneurs have been trained in acquiring the attitudes, mindset and skills of successful entrepreneurs. The foremost areas included; developing the right mindset for entrepreneurship, key habits of successful entrepreneurs, creativity and innovativeness. These areas are crucial in building a strong foundation for entrepreneurship,” Wandera said.
NBL Legal and Corporate Affairs Director, Onapito Ekomoloit explained that they are happy with the progress of the campaign thus far and are overwhelmed by the number of entrepreneurs that expressed interest in the campaign.
“There were many plausible entries but like any game show, it’s only the best of the best that proceed from one stage to the next, and so far these are the successful candidates,” he said.
Albert Kirembwe, 25, is one of the top 50 participants. Kirembwe who joined the campaign after seeing a link on a WhatsApp group says he already had a business idea which made things easy for him.
“I had a business proposal for a resort business in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Isingiro District. With this campaign, I hope to get money and put up a structure. We have the land already and if I win, I will be good to go with the structures,” he says.
Kirembwe, who hopes to make it to the top five since he believes his pitching and proposal are good shares that he has learnt team work, positive attitude and seeing business opportunities in all avenues from the boot camp.
Gorret Ndagire, 27, is another participant in the campaign. Ndagire who hails from Mpigi District is the co-founder of Safe Girl Menstrual kit whose vision is to lower the cost of menstruation by manufacturing a kit that is affordable and accessible to all girls.
“A colleague was in the first edition and she got capital. When she told us about the second season, I sat with my team and we drafted a proposal for the project. We have so far learnt a lot to do with personal development, personal development, self-assessment and mindset. We also had a financial literacy workshop. I expect to get exposure and reach a number of people through this platform,” she says.
Currently, Ndagire and her people operate in a small space but hope to expand and employ more women if she wins the campaign.
“We employ 10 fulltime workers and five part-timers. We want to add on and employ 100 women with 100 machines to meet the demand. I am confident I will win because my product solves a problem.”
From the boot camp, 25 participants will be chosen with 5 representing each region to battle it out in a 5 week game show contest due to air every Saturday on Partner station Capital FM from Saturday, September 3rd to October 1st. Participants will have an opportunity to win cash prizes right from the regional stage to the national stage. The top 5 will face off in the national contest, to be the last man standing.
The process
Phase 1- First cut-
Verification of entries. Top 10 participants will be chosen from each region
Phase 2-Boot Camp
50 participants from the five regions will gather for a boot camp in Kampala. They will be trained on business basics by Enterprise Uganda. The first quiz challenge will take place. Top 5 will be chosen per region.
Phase 3- Regional face off
Five participants, each from a different region, will face off every week, for 5 weeks in a quiz game show. Twenty-five (25) contestants will be on the spot in the weekly quiz battles.
The weekly battle will be showcased on the NBL social media platforms. Shs5m will be at stake weekly, with each participant winning from the bounty as per their performance. Each correct quiz answer will be worth some cash. The weekly winner will constitute the top 5 contestants for the national grand finale.
Phase 4- National face off Grand Finale-
The top 5 will face off in the national contest, to be the last man standing; with UGX100M up for grabs.
