BizWorld UAE and Entrepreneur Middle East Magazine Conclude KidPreneur Challenge 2017

UAE Students Win Entrepreneur Business Challenge

BizWorld UAE, a social enterprise specializing in entrepreneurship education, and Entrepreneur Middle East magazine, concluded recently their KidPreneur Challenge which involved students from around the UAE pitching their business idea to a panel of expert judges at the Hamdan Innovation Incubator in Dubai. A family team of two brothers and sister (ages12-14) from UAE won the competition with their idea of a book exchange service for children.

Students from the UAE presented their business ideas through ‘elevator pitches’ and faced questions from the judges in an exercise designed to prepare young people for the entrepreneurship world. The judging panel was chaired by Nabra Al Busaidi, Executive Director, Young Arab Leaders, Ramzi Ghurani, General Manager, Petra Insurance Brokers – UAE and Wissam Younane, CEO, BNC Publishing (Entrepreneur Middle East).

The event was attended by over 75 people which involved student entrepreneurs (ages five to 14), their parents, and representatives from supporters and sponsors of the event including Entrepreneur Middle East magazine, Young Arab Leaders, Lovin’ Dubai, Petra Insurance Brokers and Digitally Studio. The KidPreneur Challenge represents the launch of a series of events with the main annual event to be held at the end of the academic year.

CEO of BizWorld UAE, Helen Al Uzaizi commented about the event, “We organized the KidPreneur Challenge, which is the first of its kind in the entire MENA region, to encourage young people across the United Arab Emirates to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions.”

Al Uzaizi added, “We are trying to instill the idea that entrepreneurship is a viable option for all young people and that it can start at any age — All these young entrepreneurs that pitched their business ideas showed great potential.” She concluded, “We focused on this age group to reinforce the idea that by nurturing entrepreneurs at an early age they will grow up with the right entrepreneurial mindset to continue innovating and positively shape our future economy and community.”

The team who pitched the winning idea said, “This event was a special learning experience for us; we had the opportunity to get valuable feedback on my business idea and learn from experts in the field. We were also encouraged to chase after my dream and hope to put our idea into action in the near future.”