The Chase Bank Enablis ILO business plan competition came to a close on Friday the 28th at a colorful ceremony attended by 100 finalists selected from over 400 entries submitted from all over the country.

The winners were selected after a four day boot camp held at Inoorero University where the entrepreneurs were trained on Presentation skills, Financial Management, Marketing, Business Systems, Legal issues of setting up a business, Integrating ICT in Business and aligning businesses to Vision 2030. The emerging entrepreneurs also had an opportunity to interact with seasoned entrepreneurs as well as the winners of last year’s competition. Each finalist was given a chance to refine their plans and present to a panel of judges showcasing their ability to apply the knowledge acquired at the boot camp in to their presentation.

33 year old Gatumia Gatumia, who runs a digital animation company called Recon Digital emerged the overall winner in the 2011 business plan competition. He walked away with Kshs. 500,000 being the cash award for the information communication and technology category. The category was sponsored by International Labour Organization’s Youth Entrepreneurship Facility. Gatumia is a certified Autodesk Maya Animator who trained at an animation college in Toronto Canada and has 10 years of experience in producing Digital Content Animation for local and international clients. He aims to tell many untold stories through his products.

“At Recon Digital we believe that many people all over the world would really enjoy seeing well-made animation products that tell African stories featuring African characters. There is still far too little African animation out there and though it is an uphill task, we are working hard to build a profitable business that will play a part in bringing African Animation to the world,” said Gatumia.

Gatumia also said that he was honored to be selected as the winner of this year’s competition, amongst distinguished competitors saying he plans to leverage the credibility that comes with winning this competition and the funding to rapidly get his product to market.