Ghanaian Battles For 2014 Unilever, Cambridge Awards

Alloysius Attah, a young Ghanaian entrepreneur, has been named as one of the seven finalists for 2014 Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards.

The finalists were selected from 816 entries received on the Ashoka Changemakers platform , hailing from 88 countries.

A panel will choose an overall winner, who will be awarded with the Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize at a prestigious dinner at the Guildhall on 27th January, 2015.

The international awards programme is delivered by Unilever in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

It rewards inspirational entrepreneurs aged 30 and under who have developed a product, service or application that helps make sustainable living commonplace. The winner receives funding support of €50,000 and the remaining six finalists €10,000.

All also participate in a 12-month mentoring programme which aims to harness the diverse expertise, scale and influence of Unilever and CISL to support finalists to scale their business' revenue and impact and hone their entrepreneurial skills.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman said: 'We created these awards for young people because they will be the guardians of sustainable development long into the future.  I'm delighted that in its second year, the awards attracted 60 percent more entries than in the inaugural year, resulting in a very high calibre of semi-finalists and the seven truly impressive finalists we announce today.  It is a strong signal that young entrepreneurs are really welcoming access to the right support to help them lead the development of entrepreneurial responses to a changing world.'

Farmerline, the business Attah founded whilst at University, is helping smallholder farmers, like his aunt, increase yields by providing access to critical agricultural information via their mobile phones in their local language.

Farmerline's technology links farmers to markets, weather information, new farming techniques, finance, inputs and equipment services to increase their productivity and income.

The platform provides information using not just text messages, but voice too, which opens up the service to the large number of smallholder farmers in Ghana who are illiterate.

Farmers pay a small seasonal subscription fee to receive agronomic alerts and use the platform's dedicated helpline, whilst government programmes and businesses are able to reach smallholder farmers directly using mobile messaging and surveys.

No technical knowledge or hardware investment is required, the platform works on the most basic feature phones, as well as smart phones.

Since Alloysius, 25, launched Farmerline alongside his co-founder Emmanuel Owusu Addai in March 2013, over 4,000 farmers have accessed information which has resulted in increased productivity, elevated income and improved standards of living.

Farmerline's latest impact assessment indicates that farmers that have used its services for an entire season increased their income by 55.6 percent per acre.