Alloysius Attah, a young Ghanaian entrepreneur has been named as one of the seven finalists for 2014 Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards.

The finalists were selected from 816 entries received on the Ashoka Changemakers platform from 88 countries.

A panel will choose an overall winner who will be awarded with HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize at a prestigious dinner at the Guildhall on 27 January 2015.

The international awards programme is delivered by Unilever in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

It rewards inspirational entrepreneurs aged 30 and under who have developed a product, service or application that helps make sustainable living commonplace.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman said “we created these awards for young people because they will be the guardians of sustainable development long into the future.  I’m delighted that, in its second year, the Awards attracted 60 percent more entries than in the inaugural year, resulting in a very high calibre of semi-finalists and the seven truly impressive finalists we announce today.”

This according to him is a strong signal that young entrepreneurs are really welcoming access to the right support

The winner will receive funding support of €50,000 and the remaining six finalists €10,000.

All finalists will also participate in a twelve month mentoring programme which aims at harnessing the diverse expertise, scale and influence of Unilever and CISL to support finalists to scale their business’ revenue and impact and hone their entrepreneurial skills.

Since Alloysius, 25, launched Farmerline alongside his co-founder Emmanuel Owusu Addai in March 2013 while in the university.

Over 4000 farmers, with the help of Farmerline have accessed information which has resulted in increased productivity, elevated income and improved standards of living.

Farmerline’s latest impact assessment indicates that farmers that have used its services for an entire season increased their income by 55.6% per acre.

The technology links farmers to markets, weather information, new farming techniques, finance, inputs and equipment services to increase their productivity and income.

The platform provides information using not just text messages, but voice too, which opens up the service to the large number of smallholder farmers in Ghana who are illiterate.