Doha
12 October 2016

INJAZ Qatar, a non-profit organization and a member of Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide, will host the Mubadara Awards Ceremony at Qatar National Convention Centre on Sunday 16th of October; recognizing some of Qatar’s most outstanding young entrepreneurs. This year’s Mubadara Awards Ceremony will be held under the Patronage of Dr. Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi, Minister of Education and Higher Education, Qatar.

Mubadara is INJAZ Qatar’s most interactive and popular education program during which student enterprises are established through Junior Achievement’s globally recognized “Company Program™” and is a prominent feature in the INJAZ Qatar calendar of activities.

19 student teams were provided with the unique opportunity to establish and run a real business over a period of ten months with the guidance of professionals from leading businesses across Qatar. Only 16 student teams made it to the final stage of the program; 11Student teams from Qatar’s independent secondary schools and 5 teams from universities in Qatar. During the program, students go through the entire life cycle of a startup venture as they develop a business idea, form a team, raise capital of up to QAR 11,000, devise business plans, and produce and sell a product or a service. Towards the end of the ten months of activity, students present their entrepreneurial ideas before a judging panel of business leaders from the local market.

In the upcoming Mubadara 2016 Awards Ceremony, the innovative products and services developed by the student companies will be exhibited and the winners of this year’s competition will be announced with the opportunity to represent Qatar at the 2016 regional finals.

Students will vie for one of four awards, which are:

The Best Company of the Year award sponsored by ExxonMobil,

Best Product/Service award sponsored by the Commercial Bank,

The Best Marketing Plan Award and

The Best Social Impact Award.

A new award will be added this year which is ‘Company Program People’s Choice Award’, when the chance will be opened to public to vote for the best Company via Instagram app. A cheque of QR 5,000 will be presented to the winner by Entrepreneurs Organization Qatar "EO"

The team winning Best Company of the Year Award (University level) will be given ongoing support by QBIC (Qatar Business Incubation Center) and seed Funding of QAR 35,000 from BOEING to start their real business.

"ExxonMobil Qatar is honored to celebrate the completion of Mubadara 2016, INJAZ Qatar’s Annual Young Enterprise of the Year Competition," said Alistair Routledge, President and General Manager for ExxonMobil Qatar. "At ExxonMobil Qatar, we invest in programs that build human capacity, such as INJAZ Qatar’s many successful initiatives. We do this because we believe that the greatest contribution we can make to this country is to help cultivate the potential of its future workforce."

"Through programs like the wonderful Mubadara competition, young leaders have the opportunity to take innovation to new levels and to ultimately be catalysts of change in their communities. We are proud to support this initiative that provides a platform for young leaders to harness their potential," he added.

The Awards Ceremony will host more than 350 guests, including INJAZ Qatar’s Board Members and representatives from the private and public sector (including education sector in Qatar).

Joseph Abraham, CEO Commercial Bank said: “Commercial Bank is committed to empowering young Qataris to become the leaders of the future by providing expertise to develop their creativity skills, encouraging them to take the initiative, and helping them explore opportunities available in the market. Commercial Bank’s collaboration with INJAZ is part of our endeavor to promote work-readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship in Qatar through investment in a generation of educated youth who will contribute positively to the local community. Mubadara Competition provides an excellent opportunity to teach young people many essential skills by running a real business over a period of five months with the guidance of professionals from leading businesses across Qatar.”

This year’s Mubadara Award Ceremony sponsors are ExxonMobil as Platinum Sponsor, The Commercial Bank as Gold Sponsor. BOEING is the strategic partner for the Start-Up program, QBIC is the Incubation partner who will host the winner, Entrepreneurs Organization Sponsoring People's Choice Award and Hill+Knowlton Strategies are showing their support to INJAZ Qatar as the Media partner.