Registration for Entrepreneurship Award concludes, evaluation begins

Muscat: Registration for the third edition of the Entrepreneurship Award has come to an end. Young entrepreneurs of the future are waiting to see if they will make it through to the next phase of a national contest.
"After receiving a lot of support the registration phase of the third edition of the Entrepreneurship Award comes to an end," a spokesperson said.
The third edition of the Award includes 15 awards divided into three main categories: The Entrepreneurship Award, Entrepreneurship Award for SME and the Entrepreneurship Award for Supporting Organisation.
The values of cash prizes are as follows, for the Best Entrepreneur Award the amount is raised to OMR 8,000, OMR 5,000 for Best Educational Initiative and OMR 5,000 for Best Media Initiative.
For the Best Home Business, the prize now is OMR 3,000 and best Micro Business, the cash prize is set to OMR 6,000 and OMR 5,000 (First and second place, respectively).
Additionally, for Best Small Business in industry, trade and services sectors the award is OMR 7,000 and OMR 12,000 for Best Medium Business in industry, trade and services sectors.
Riyada received 391 applications, leading to the next step, which is the filtration of the online forms through automated software.
Once this is completed, the assessors will then organise site visits and hold interviews, to further evaluate the participants.
The first step of the assessment phase is categorising participants according to specific criteria.
“For the third edition of the Entrepreneurship Award, the registration and assessment are done electronically. To make these procedures more accurate and efficient, a new website and system has been launched.
Progression can be tracked through the new system and direct screening can also be done. Due to this new system, the Award’s team can easily contact those applicants who were selected and inform them about the next step,” said Badriya Al Hinai, Project Manager of the Award.
Targeting entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises, the award aims to incorporate ideologies of entrepreneurship in the Omani Society through building their capabilities and preparing them for a competitive market.
The Award partnered with Oman Telecommunications Company Omantel, to join efforts to increase the private sector’s participation in the future.
Omantel will provide financial support through this collaboration, contributing to the progression of this Award.
The Award hosted 15 awareness workshops across Oman, which were attended by more than 600 representatives from public and private institutions.
The Award yearns to boost the capacity of entrepreneurship and SMEs to be effective contributors to an evolving economy.