Judges with the winning teams from Algeria and Yemen at the sixth annual INJAZ Al Arab Young Entrepreneurs Competition.
DOHA: ALGreenIA and Creative Generation from Algeria and Yemen respectively walked away with the top accolade for the ‘Best Company of the Year’ award at the sixth annual INJAZ Al Arab Young Entrepreneurs Competition held under the patronage of Qatar Foundation.
The student companies were assessed on their ability to demonstrate sound business insight, financial knowledge, marketing support and feasibility studies.
In addition, competing students were required to spend one day showcasing their products, presenting to the public, and holding a private question and answer session with the judging panel in order to present their business in its entirety.
The award was presented by Fadi Michael Bay, Vice President of ExxonMobil Qatar to both companies for their environmentally-friendly products.
The jury comprised Fadi Ghandour, Founder and CEO of Aramex, Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani, Founder and Chairperson of Amwal, Slim Othmani, Vice President of Afia Algeria, Fadi Michael Bey, Vice President of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc, and Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi, CEO of HSBC Bank Middle East Qatar.
Other awards of the night included: HSBC Award for the ‘Most Innovative Product’ which went to Mathaq from Oman, a company that specialises in the production of tea in an innovative and time efficient manner; FedEx ‘Access Award’ going to RecycloBekia from Egypt, a company which specialises in electronic waste collection that offers green recycling and data destruction; NBK Award for the ‘Company with the Best Social Impact’ going to VISIO from Lebanon, a company which aims to educate communities to take care of the environment, and Barwa Bank’s Award for the ‘Best Marketing Plan’ going to H2O Meter from Palestine, an environmentally-friendly product which aims to preserve water with high efficiency and low costs.
The INJAZ Al Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition was launched in 2007 and is attended by national competition winners from countries across the region.
This year’s competition was the culmination of 5,430 participating students working to create 240 student companies across 13 countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.
Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, president of Hamad bin Khalifa University and vice president of Education for Qatar Foundation said: “INJAZ Al Arab has highlighted the need to encourage entrepreneurship within each community in the region and after seeing the outcome of the competition, we are proud to support an organisation that benefits Arab youth through education and motivation, and we hope to continue supporting INJAZ Al Arab in the years to come.” The Peninsula
