MTN and the World Wide Fund for Nature have reopened applications for the Africa PachiPanda Challenge, the pair’s continent-spanning competition for young entrepreneurs building environmental solutions. The new cycle lands as several participating countries stagger their own submission windows through October, reflecting how the programme has grown from a single-market pilot into a multi-country pipeline for climate-focused youth ventures.
A Programme With Zambian Roots
The Challenge traces back to 2022, when MTN Zambia Foundation and WWF Zambia launched the original PachiPanda Innovation Challenge to surface local ideas on climate adaptation, water management, and waste reduction. Its results were strong enough that the two organisations scaled the model into the Africa PachiPanda Challenge, extending it to Nigeria, South Africa, and Cameroon by 2024, before Uganda joined the following year. Eswatini has now become the newest addition, with its inaugural national edition launching this September.
Momentum has been building steadily. The 2025 continental round drew 3,436 applications and advanced 158 finalists through pitch training, according to figures MTN has published on the programme’s page — a scale that signals the Challenge has moved well past experimental status.
What Applicants Are Being Asked to Solve
The competition targets youth aged 18 to 35, along with early-stage and youth-led SMEs, and asks them to design ventures around locally specific environmental problems rather than generic sustainability pitches. Themes differ by market: South Africa’s 2026 statements span nature-based enterprise, circular-economy waste solutions, water security, and regenerative agriculture, while Uganda’s edition centres on ecosystem restoration, green livelihoods, biodiversity protection, and digital tools for…
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