Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE Kenya) has launched the 2010 National University Business & Entrepreneurship Competition to climax on July 3 when the grand winner would be announced. The competition, in its 8th consecutive year, will see 14 universities compete for the chance to represent Kenya in the SIFE World Cup in the USA in early October this year.  

Speaking during the launch, SIFE Kenya Country Director, Mr. James Shikwati said that about 600 students from 14 universities are expected to take part in what is expected to be a hotly contested community projects championship.

“During the competitions, each of the teams drawn from the public and private universities is expected to present 24-minute multimedia summaries of the projects they developed and implemented in various parts of Kenya throughout the year. The judges will be looking for the needs students identified, the intervention prescribed and the measureable outcomes. ”

The judging panel is comprised of high level individuals from business fraternity, corporate fields, as well as the media.

Last year, Maseno University emerged the champions and represented Kenya at the World Cup finals in Berlin Germany where they advanced to semi finals. Egypt SIFE emerged last years SIFE Global Champions.  

SIFE Kenya is the main coordinating body for a network of university business clubs aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and establish linkages between business ventures, institutions of higher learning and communities.

The students learn leadership skills, team work and entrepreneurship. They also apply ideas learnt from the classroom in the field. SIFE Kenya student graduates opt to start businesses and others stand out upon graduation due to the field practice and get absorbed in the now competitive job market.
The communities on the other hand benefit from these ideas and seek to solve problems instead of relying on handouts and waiting for external solutions to problems they can and should solve on their own. This network also promotes the link between universities, the communities and businesses.

The Judging Companies contribute on ideas and how student teams can improve their projects hence the quality of the impact to communities that are served by students. Judges also identify possible ways they can enhance their company community outreach through the student network by sponsoring special competition on selected themes.

This year, Coca-Cola East & Central Africa, buoyed by its widely successful Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs) which has created several entrepreneurs and job opportunities, is sponsoring the Entrepreneurship pillar in the hope of inspiring more creative entrepreneurial ideas among the students.

“We see SIFE as being a good platform where the students can horn their skills in various disciplines including, entrepreneurship, market economics, leadership, financial literacy and make them ready for the job market. It is indeed a great opportunity to network and jumpstart their careers as they receive real-world learning experience,” said Mr. Bob Okello, Coca-Cola’s Public Affairs & Government Relations Manager for East & Central Africa.