Mashrouy competition

What is Mashrouy?

Mashrouy, which means 'My Project', is a competition that aims to spread the idea of entrepreneurship among young people and to shed light on the vast opportunities that entrepreneurship can provide to the youth of Sudan. Mashrouy is a project that we run in partnership with the British Embassy and the Sudanese Young Businessmen’s Association, which tries to promote entrepreneurship among young people in Sudan and raise awareness within the general public. The project has the following objectives:

To empower youth and offer them a platform to showcase their business ideas
To boost innovation and creativity
To contribute to socioeconomic development
To develop potential and competent future business leaders

Twelve contestants compete with each other to present their best business ideas. Their ideas are then developed and refined by a panel of business executives, who provide valuable professional advice. After a series of challenges and twists, six contestants are chosen by the panel of judges. From these six contestants, five are then chosen by a public vote to have a chance of being one of three price winners.

The project components are:

The televised competition where 12 contestants compete against each other and present their business ideas to a panel of Judges
The enterprise development training for young people across Sudan
Promoting entrepreneurship education in collaboration with Sudanese universities
UK engagement through visits of young entrepreneurs and delegates from enterprise centres to offer an international dimension and support collaboration
Continuous Professional Development for the young entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneurship Forum and Mashrouy Club

A mentoring scheme whereby young entrepreneurs will be supported by experts and professionals from the business sector and academies to offer them guidance and advice in the form of a business clinic and one-to-one mentoring for the selected top 24. Mashrouy is part of a collaborative partnership between the British Council, the British Embassy and the Sudanese Young Businessmen Association (SYBMA) to promote youth creative entrepreneurship in Sudan.The project is sponsored by Sudani Telecom, Albaraka Bank, CTC Group, Mashreq University and Nobles Group.

The competition in its previous seasons has achieved great success so far, including:

• Inspired hope, entrepreneurship and innovation among thousands of young people

• Four television programs have been produced, covering more than 45 episodes that have raised awareness and become a platform to educate the public about the concepts of entrepreneurship.

• A network of university professors and lecturers has been created to teach entrepreneurship and encourage students to create projects and research in this field, as the result for such collaboration the first enterprise centre was established in Sudan University of science and technology.

• Link participants to the private sector, companies and investors by creating a network of mentors and young entrepreneurs to share ideas and projects.

• The previous seasons of Mashrouy have provided training in financial planning and business management to 4,000 young people around Sudan in business start-up. This training has raised awareness about entrepreneurship and contributed to stabilising the socio-economic status of Sudan by creating more job opportunities and providing solutions to problems that directly affect Sudanese communities.

What are the prizes?

First prize is 300,000 SDG, second prize is 200,000 SDG and third prize is 150,000 SDG. All three winners will also travel to the UK for one week to meet other creative entrepreneurs and receive further training.

MASHROUY 2018

The call for applications has ended for Mashrouy 2018.

“A young – well relatively young nation like Sudan - needs all the energy, creativity, spirit and contribution of its youth to achieve social and economic development. That will only happen if young people are given the opportunity, space and time to play the active role to play in all spheres including business and economic activities.And that is exactly what Mashrouy has done – and continues to do.”

Irfan Siddiq - British Ambassador to Sudan.

"Mashrouy’ is a phenomenal national success in terms of the number of people who have benefited from capacity building in all the disciplines of Entrepreneurship over the last four years. We have wonderful partners who have supported this innovative programme, ensuring great visibility and scale across all Sudan’s states. In Mashrouy 4 we co-sponsored with One World Media a short documentary by Aljazeera about last year’s winners and the success of the winning project. So we were able to extend the Mashrouy name and brand far beyond Sudan’s borders, to inform the international community of the impact of Mashrouy, the influence of its winners and contestants and its contribution to the global Social Enterprise community.”

Robin Davies, Country Director, British Council Sudan.

Our selection process

The selection for the competition will be conducted professionally, neutrally and with extreme transparency. Applications will be subjected to a rigourous process by several internal committees, ending with an unbiased committee of business and management experts from various fields who will give their professional opinion on the projects. The selection process will focus on the innovative aspect of the projects, as well as the feasibility of their implementation. Applications should reflect the main objectives of the contest, which are to encourage innovative spirit in Sudan's young people and to seek non-traditional opportunities of investment and business startup.

Maisson Hassan

Company: Fandora
Fandora is an enterprise that utilizes local and recycled materials to create beautiful jewelry and accessories, focusing on environmental education by organizing recycling workshops at schools, cultural centers and prisons. We created the name out of two Arabic words “Fan= Art” and “dor= role”. Fandora is “the role of Art in the community”; we believe art plays a major role in change and development in any community.

How did you get the idea to start it?

I wanted to make things that could proudly be labeled, “Made in Sudan”. I began surveying the local market to find a plethora of options that reflect the current status of the country’s economy. Nowadays gold prices are unaffordable to many, so the market is dominated by the cheaper imported variety. The competition is unfair between local and imported products, yet you still find Sudanese jewelry makers striving to survive in this industry, but they’re using imported stones and crystals to keep the prices low. The market overloaded with foreign imports from around the world and rarely any mass produced Sudanese jewelry, I took on a design project out of jealousy for my country and my people.

I started thinking about finding solutions for our community problems. Solutions that could help in fighting poverty and creating a change. We explored the idea of recycling handicrafts, aiming to make use of the solid waste (paper, glass, plastic and metal) as no-cost raw materials. We did our research and decided to share the output with everyone. The project became stronger and realistic after our participation in British Council’s Mashrouy Competition for entrepreneurship in 2013. It helped us on developing a business and marketing plan.

Failure is scary but common when you’re setting up a new venture. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made, since starting your business? What did it teach you?

There are two mistakes: the first was taking in co-founders who were not fully committed to the project and did not contribute financially, they soon decided to leave. I found myself spearheading the company alone after my partners left.

The second mistake was the fast expansion by renting a bigger place and increasing the running costs, while our lines of production were limited. After one year, I went back to a home-based business and started revising my business plan once again.

Would you say that Africa has influenced or inspired you, in terms of your creativity, the way you’ve built up your company, or your product?

Indeed, Africa has the biggest inspiration on my business. Although, Sudan has a mixed Arab-African culture, but our heritage is very rich because of this mixture.

What is it about your company that you are most proud of?

I am satisfied with the fact that Fandora works for the community. We strategize for putting women issues at the forefront. Dedicated to work with vulnerable women groups, we set about to position Fandora as a poverty fighting enterprise. Fandora is trying to empower poor and uneducated women and give them the tools needed to change their fortune. Through recycling-handicrafts workshops and training, more women capture the skills and start their own low-cost business for income generation. This will create a great impact on their lives, health and environment.

External links

Entrepreneurial Africa