Anzisha has announced the opening of applications for its 2026 Fellowship following the conclusion of the 2025 Entrepreneurship Education in Africa Summit, held recently at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.

In a statement, Anzisha said the fellowship supports Africa’s youngest founders with venture-building assistance, coaching and a peer community to help them develop leadership skills, scale their businesses and create jobs.

The summit had brought together educators, policymakers, investors and business leaders to reflect on best practices in entrepreneurship education. It ended with the Anzisha Awards Gala, where four entrepreneurs under 25 were recognised for their achievements and each received $10,000.

South Africa’s Cebolenkosi Gcabashe (22), founder of G Khula Trading in KwaZulu-Natal, won the Revenue Growth Award “after building a profitable property services company from a single high-pressure cleaner.”

Nigeria’s Bunmi Esther Olalude reportedly received the Job Creation Award for “empowering women and youths”, while Zimbabwe’s Tafadzwa Manyanye won the Systems of Delivery Award for “building efficient agricultural services”.

Another Nigerian, Christianah Madu, was said to have taken home the Storytelling Award for “raising the visibility of her venture through communication.”

Panel sessions during the summit explored how very young entrepreneurs are reshaping the future of work, tackling issues such as bridging the gap between education and employment, financing overlooked founders, and recognising informality as innovation rather than failure.

In her closing address, Anzisha Managing Editor, Didi Onwu, challenged stakeholders to rethink their approach to youth enterprise.

“Youth entrepreneurship isn’t the backup plan; it’s the blueprint. For too long, we have treated entrepreneurship as plan B, the path we take when ‘the real’ systems fail you. But this summit is a reminder that youth-led enterprise isn’t what happens when things go wrong; it’s what happens when young people take control of their futures,” she stated.

According to the statement, Anzisha has supported nearly 300 young entrepreneurs across Africa through funding, mentorship and peer-to-peer learning.

The 2026 Fellowship is open to Africans aged 15 to 22 who are running their own ventures, with participants competing for a shared prize pool of $50,000.

Anzisha said its work is underpinned by “research, advocacy and storytelling that highlights the impact of young entrepreneurs and challenges policymakers, educators and investors to build an enabling environment.