Kenyan Jane Mweni wins the BBC Swahili young entrepreneur competition 2009

Twenty-one-year-old Kenyan Jane Mweni has won the BBC Swahili Faidika na BBC (Prosper with the BBC) young entrepreneur competition and will be invited to address the Youth Forum during November’s biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago.

At the grand final in Mombasa, Kenya, on 13 August 2009, Jane was presented with the US$5,000 prize to help launch her business proposal on waste management in Mombasa. 

“There is a slum next to where I live, which is filled with rubbish, because no-one can afford to pay the high prices charged by collections companies,” she explained. “So for my project I proposed a company which will still turn over a profit but will collect the rubbish at a much lower price. With my business all 1,500 households in the slum will pay less than a dollar for the whole month, compared with 8-10 dollars they were being charged by other companies.

“My business will employ around 50 young people, most of whom are currently out of work.”

In announcing the Commonwealth’s participation in Faidika na BBC, Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said: “The Commonwealth is delighted that the winner of the BBC Swahili young entrepreneur competition will be able to address the Youth Forum at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. 

“This year, the Commonwealth celebrates its 60th anniversary, and our focus is on ‘Serving a new generation’. The message of Faidika na BBC is about empowering young people to contribute actively to society through their innovation, talents and business acumen. We celebrate this shared vision. More than half of the Commonwealth’s 2 billion citizens are young people and we believe in the importance of developing and nurturing our youth. They are our inspiration and our future.”

Jane, who is awaiting her Graduate Diploma results from DALC College in Mombasa, said she was “speechless” to have won and is “extremely excited” about speaking at the forthcoming CHOGM. 

“This is a fantastic opportunity for me to meet other young people who are full of interesting ideas on important global issues,” she said. “By bringing all of these minds together in one place, a powerful voice representing young people will emerge.”

The young Kenyan came ahead of five other aspiring entrepreneurs by effectively demonstrating how she would use the prize money to help turn her idea into a successful business that would have a positive impact on her community.

Key Links:

• Youth
• Country Profile: Kenya