Thursday 18 / April / 2024
Muscat: Student company Mouj will be doing Oman proud at a regional competition to select the Middle East’s best SME, after winning Injaz Oman’s Company Programme and Competition, which featured some of the most aspiring student companies drawn from various colleges and universities across the Sultanate.
Spearheaded by BP Oman and inaugurated under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Kamil Al Said, Assistant Secretary General of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers, the competition is aimed at boosting the number of small and medium enterprises in Oman, thereby enabling the country to find better solutions to problems it might encounter in the future, as well as providing new employment opportunities to young Omanis.
“The attention and care given by our beloved nation and its leadership to the youth, supporting their ambition, is the way to secure the future prosperity and welfare,” said Khalid Al Zubair, chairman of Injaz Oman.
“This is Injaz Oman’s aim and mission because it seeks to contribute and add value to the nation and its people.
“The Company Programme’s objective is to be a catalyst in fortifying the national economy through complementing the government’s efforts and affiliating with other entrepreneurial entities, creating training and employment opportunities,” he added. “This will equip them with skills and instil entrepreneurial ethics required to successfully enter the job market.”
With Oman looking to diversify its economy and expand its productivity through the Tanfeedh initiative, competitions like the Company Programme and Competition are vital to preparing Oman’s youth for the slew of new services that will be required, in addition to creating companies that will be able to help Oman offer better options at affordable rates in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, hospitality, manufacturing and energy, to name a few.
“Our collaboration with Injaz Oman emerges from our belief that the Company Programme and Competition plays an imperative role in empowering the youth,” said Yousuf Al Ojaili, president of BP Oman.
“We are pleased to be a part of an initiative that focuses on young people and aims to enhance their leadership as well as entrepreneurial skills, stimulating productivity in the Omani economy.”
The contest saw the start-ups that possess the maximum potential undergo rigorous panel interviews, as well as trial runs, where they were expected to sell and exhibit their ideas and products over a two-day period.
A highly competent panel of judges led the interviews, a very critical step to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these student companies. The participants elaborated on their company’s report that had been provided to the evaluators at the end of the year, with focus also placed on how these firm would fare in the Omani market, the challenges they would face, and what needed to be done to overcome them.
The evaluation process was devised to confirm whether participants understood the dynamics that impact businesses, thereby reinforcing their learning as a strong foundation for building sustainable operations.
The awards ceremony, which honoured the winning company, Mouj, was held at Shangri-La’s Barr-Al-Jissah resort, and was attended by many prominent business figures across Oman.
In addition to the ‘Best Student Company Award’, a slew of other honours were also conferred across various categories, namely the ‘Best Sustainable Product Award’, which was given to Sannah by Occidental Oman and the ‘Best Marketing Plan’ which was won by Berwaz, under the auspices of Al Raffad Fund.
Boeing sponsored the trophy for ‘Best Advertisement’, which was won by Power Station, and the National Youth Commission handed out the award for ‘Best In-country Value’, which was scooped up by Samarim.
