Local start-up shortlisted for international award
A START-UP co-founded by a local entrepreneur has been selected as one of six finalists in an international competition.
Ali Buckland set up Skizaa Education last year with colleagues Ngugi Karega and Shyoji Meena.
The company supports non-governmental and non-profit organisations working in schools in rural areas of Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria by collecting and analysing educational data.
It has been invited to showcase its work as part of the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, which will be held at the Times Centre in Manhattan, New York in October.
‘Growing up in Guernsey, it’s very easy to take quality education for granted. It’s important to remember how lucky we are. The work I do at Skizaa is to ensure that more children, regardless of their socio-economic status, have access to quality education,’ said Miss Buckland.
She was surprised when she received an email from the organisers of the competition announcing her company’s successful application.
‘We apply for all sorts of things all the time. Initially I thought it was a scam. They’ve been running the competition for 14 years,’ she said.
The company will soon be matched with a mentor who will assist it in honing its pitch.
‘I’m not sure what to expect to be honest. It could be a 10-minute pitch or it could be a much longer presentation. We’ll have to wait and see.’
The winner will receive $150,000 and an additional $150,000 provided by an investor.
Miss Buckland said the prize money would help the company expand into new areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
‘Currently we work with a number of organisations who support hundreds of schools in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, but we are growing all the time and hope to move into places like Tanzania, Ghana and Sierra Leone in the future.’
