Makerere University has for the second year in a row been selected to host the annual Hult Prize Challenge – a brainchild of the 42nd president of the United States of America, Mr Bill Clinton. Finalist CIT student Silver Walugembe was selected as the Campus Director for the challenge.
This essentially means that Makerere’s participation impressed last year and they have been selected as one of the universities to take part in the challenge again.
The Hult Prize is a start-up accelerator for impact entrepreneurship which brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing issues through pitching ideas and launching companies.
“In this world full of chaos, I believe that the power to bring forth change lies in the human brain. During my observation, I am always hurt by the fact that a student creates a project with generational ideas only but to use them to earn marks on his or her academic transcript” Walugembe said.
He added that such outcomes always mark the end of the life cycle of these Ideas and that it has mostly been caused by the lack of funding.
As of now, the Hult Prize is the biggest and most prestigious start-up event in the world, and awards millions of dollars in investment capital to young budding entrepreneurs, including a grand prize of USD 1Million.
The selected Campus Director, Walugembe, participated in the challenge last year and his team “The AgroDuuka” that also had former Makerere guild aspirant Bazil Mwotta, was able to reach the regional stage of the competition in Nairobi, Kenya.
The challenge presents an equal opportunity for all youths that are using startups to impact change in their communities and anyone can always register to take part.
If the judges are convinced that your innovation is the best there is, a grand prize of USD 1 million is up for grabs not to mention the numerous cash prizes at the different stages of the competition and exposure.
Registration of challengers at this stage is only by the collection of contacts and details of team members that would like to take part. A team can be made up of 3 to 4 full-time students. Alumni and lecturers cannot take part. To take part, contact the Campus Director, Silver Walugembe at walsil.sw@gmail.com for consideration.
