On Friday September 4, 2020, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Kiama launched the Hult Prize program at the University of Nairobi.
The University of Nairobi has in many decades celebrated innovation and entrepreneurial skills among its stakeholders including students who have continuously competed on the global arena and emerged winners.
The spirit of the Hult prize is to give the students, both undergraduate and postgraduate an opportunity to hone their innovation skills and to be part of a social movement that seeks to address the most pressing issues of the 21century.
The Hult prize has in the recent past focused in offering solutions in the areas of Education, Clean Water, Energy, Poverty, Global Food Crisis, Healthcare, Early Childhood Education, Doubling Income, Refugee Crisis, Harnessing the Power of Energy and Youth Unemployment and Climate Change.
The UoN Hult Prize on-campus program is an opportunity for the students both undergraduate and postgraduate to hone their innovation and creativity skills to address the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century. For the year 2020, the theme of the program is focusing on Food, “transforming food into a vehicle for change”, The reality of the world we are living in is a population that cannot feed itself.
This year like many other years, students from and across the globe will be competing for a seed capital of USD 1,000,000. The University of Nairobi students will participate in this competition and we believe that our students have the capability to bag this award.
This program fits very well in the recently launched five 5-point reform agenda by the Vice Chancellor aimed at transforming the University into “A vibrant and Sustainable University” a university benefiting society through research and innovation. This Hult Prize Social Innovation Challenge aligns very well with the VC’s Reform Agenda Number 5 on people where the University will identify and celebrate talents and achievements, exploit intangible assets through commercialization and to promote research and technology transfer ecosystem, ensure the University attracts, recruits, supports and retains outstanding staff and students and provide a diverse, inclusive, fair and open work environment where people give their best to their work and feel valued.
As many students as possible are invited to participate in the challenge as possible and lecturers will mentor the students who seek mentorship to develop their entrepreneurial skills.
The Vice Chancellor and the Dean of Students wishes the organizing committee led by a UoN Alumnus, Mr. John Mwati, the Campus Director a very successful on campus program.
