AFRICANGLOBE – The Anzisha Prize, hosted by the African Leadership Academy in collaboration with The MasterCard Foundation, is inviting young businesspeople from around Africa to enter for its latest youth entrepreneurial competition.

With $75,000 in cash prizes, the prestigious Anzisha Prize aims to reward young African entrepreneurs who are making positive impact by transforming their communities through initiative and innovation.

There is also a $10,000 Energy Prize which will be awarded to the applicant who demonstrates ingenuity in developing sustainable renewable energy sources.

The Anzisha Prize which will close entries on April 1, 2013, is open to entrepreneurs from around the African continent aged between 15 and 22. Entries can be completed at the official site either in English or French.

Finalists will win an all-expense paid trip to the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, to attend a weeklong entrepreneurship conference and awards gala.

Winners will share $75,000, courtesy of The MasterCard Foundation, and be given networking and learning opportunities to take their projects to the next level.

Twenty-one- year-old Andrew Mupuya of Uganda was announced as the grand prize winner of last year’s Anzisha Prize thanks to his paper bag production company, Youth Entrepreneurial Link Investments (YELI).

Past winners have included Kenya’s Diana Mong’are who founded recycling company Planet Green and became an evangelist for environmental conservation in her community, Ghana’s Yaw Duffour-Awuah who at the age of 16 launched a micro-lending company which has now grown to a financial services company, and Antoinette Furaha from the Democratic Republic of Congo who began a small micro-credit services company that invests in and empowers young refugee women in Uganda.