Safaricom’s BLAZE held its fifth Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) regional summit of the year on 25th November at the Mombasa Sports Club.

This is part of the second season of BYOB which has seen thousands of youth mentored on how to turn their passion into careers.

According to Sylvia Mulinge, Director of Safaricom’s Consumer Business , over 30,000 young people turned out for the previous five summits and Sh2.9M worth of business support was given out to deserving ventures that demonstrated potential to grow. “It’s motivating to see the great innovative young minds we have in Kenya!” she said.

Through the summits the participants get opportunities to have one on one sessions with key speakers and peer influencers as well as network with like-minded youth. The summits are also a platform through which young people can audition for the second season of the Blaze BYOB TV show set for next year.

One of the participants, David Kimani from Kilifi who emerged second runners up winning at the TV show was one of the mentors at the summit. Following his growth as an entrepreneur, Kimani is chasing his dreams through his Second Chance Adult Learning Center in Kilifi County, with a mission to contributing towards improving literacy and providing skills training to those in the informal sector.

“BLAZE Platform currently has over one million users and in a couple of two weeks following Nairobi Summit, we are certain to hit the two million mark.” Said Charles Wanjohi Head of Consumer Segments Marketing- Safaricom.

Some of the mentors at the Mombasa summit include; Nick Ondu – Fashion Blogger, Enos Olik- Video Director, Tosh Gitonga – Film Director, Jibril Blessing-Producer and videographer, Njugush– Comedian and actor, Abel Mutua- content developer, Wycliffe Waweru- entrepreneur and bicycle manufacturer, Caleb Karuga – Agripreneur as well as Bryan Wanyama of Matwana Matatu Culture. For technology mentorship Blaze is partnering with E-mobilis, an agency delivering the Digital Skills Africa Program in partnership with Google.