10 business heroes win Africa Netpreneur Prize

Christelle Kwazera, 25 years old and the youngest finalist, walked away with $100,000. Kwazera runs Water Access Rwanda, a social enterprise committed to eradicating water scarcity by providing appropriate technologies for durable access to water.

Established in 2014, the enterprise has provided clean water access to over 132,000 individuals, schools, business and farms in Rwanda and across the borders in DRC, Burundi and Uganda.

Kwazera said the money will help them grow smartly, noting access to financing has been their biggest challenge.

"While President Kagame is a big encouragement to young people to venture into entrepreneurship, commercial banks are not willing to give loans to them. The prize is a win for my 63 employees," she said.

Kwazera thanked Jack Ma for providing a platform for African entrepreneurs to grow their business but also giving them his name to build their credibility.

The other seven finalists each went home with $65,000, which they said they will use to scale up their businesses.