TML holds Startupper of the Year Awards ceremony

Total Malawi on 14th March 2019 held an award ceremony for the Startupper of the Year at an event held in Blantyre, Malawi.

Position number 1 was won by Noriah Katungwe who with her Moringa Women Project is working with women's village savings and loans groups, empowering them with production and processing skills as well as business management skills to promote their nutrition and income security.

Commenting on the award, Noriah observed that the recognition was a motivation to work extra hard and the money realized will help the project to procure machines for the processing of the Moringa herb.

"During the pitch I was challenged so much by the jury that afterwards I went on to rework the project and the financial model and I am better off for it. This has been the main benefit of participating in the competition and the prize money is like the icing on the cake. I am committed to using the resources Total has given me to enrich my project and help realize the goals I have for it," she said.

Commenting on the quality of the projects, Total Malawi's Managing Director Salamata Ball said she was impressed with the winning projects and was interested in working with them some more.

“We will work with the winning projects to ensure that the initiatives are fully developed,” Ball said.

The awards also recognized the Top Female Entrepreneur which was won by the challenge's first winner Noriah Katungwe and the Startup for Better Energy which was won by the first runner up, Everson Jere and his Planks and Briquettes production project. Position number 3 was won by Dumisani Kaliati and his Micromek project which is using fixed wing autonomous drones to provide transportation and delivery of medical diagnostics in hard to reach areas in Malawi.