Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Competition (BYEC) 1.0 ended on a high note on July 18, 2022, through an online closing ceremony. Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Advice and Helpcentre (B'Yeah) launched a five-month-long competition to harness the power of youth entrepreneurship to tackle the most pressing challenges we face in our communities and showcase the youth's innovative entrepreneurial solutions. B'Yeah awarded three winners a total of 9 lac taka innovation fund.
The three winners are: Md. Al-Amin, Zarrin Tasnim and Wasiul Haque Bhuiyan. Furthermore, the top ten youth entrepreneurs will get ancillary support valuing more than 5 lac taka from the partners: Academy of Business Professionals, Bepari.info, and Game Changer Training & Consulting, coupled with training on Decent Work, Social and Green Entrepreneurship Toolkit from B'Yeah.
In the first stage of BYEC 1.0, B'Yeah received more than 2,500 ideas through the competition's microsite. Among these, 20 entrepreneurs proceeded to the incubation stage after multiple selection rounds. The incubation was full of hands-on activities, 70 hours+ sessions coupled with mentoring. More than 20 industry leaders took these sessions where the selected youth entrepreneurs got a unique chance to interact with changemakers.
The final award ceremony was held on July 18, 2022, where prominent personalities from home & abroad, such as Ms. Marta Krupinska, Head of Google for Startups UK & Chair, Youth Business International (YBI), Mr. Gunjan Bahadur Dallakoti, SME Development Specialist, International Labor Organization (ILO), Mr. M M Zimran Khan, Head of Exploration, UNDP Accelerator Lab, Bangladesh, and Ms. Vandana Verma, Program Manager, IKEA Foundation were present as special guests.
Mr. Tarif Mohammad Khan, Head of Brand & Strategy, Dekko ISHO Group, and Mr. Raisul Kabir, Co-Founder & CEO, Brain Station 23, shared their experiences of contributing as mentors in the program.
In the welcome note, B'Yeah Chairman Mr. Manzoor Hasan OBE mentioned - "Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Competition 1.0 has brought the best out of the youth while providing them with a congenial environment to grow and mature." Executive Director of B'Yeah, Mr. Md. Rashed Mamun, declared, "this evening marks not the closing, but rather the beginning of a remarkable journey full of courage and perseverance representing Bangladeshi youth."
The guests were pleased to see the extensive support the first cohort of BYEC 1.0 got from B'Yeah. B'Yeah intends to launch this program on a much larger scale in coming years to replicate the enormous success in supporting a vibrant youth community.
