"Microentrepreneur of the Year" is a contest organized by the Kronenberg Foundation partnered by Microfinance Centre for Central and Eastern Europe.

Objectives
The main objective of the contest is to promote microentrepreneurship, encourage setting up of small enterprises and recognize the best microbusinesses as examples of effective economic activity. By conducting the program, the Foundation also wishes to popularise and promote microcredit and microfinances as efficient tools for stimulating economic growth.

Details:
246 nominations were submitted in the fifth edition of the contest, some sent in directly by the contestants, other by microfinancing institutions. Nominations were submitted via an electronic form designed especially for the contest.

The award giving ceremony in the fifth edition of the contest was held in New Connect Hall at Warsaw Stock Exchange. The ceremony was hosted by Michał H. Mrożek, Vice President of Management Board of Citi Handlowy, and Iwona Jaworska, President of Management Board of the Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy.
The winning factors were: idea for business, background and circumstances in which the business was launched, ability to overcome crisis and difficulties at launch, as well as creativity and courage in business actions.

The winners were selected by the contest jury:

• Andrzej Arendarski - President of Krajowa Izba Gospodarcza (Polish Chamber of Commerce),
• Grzegorz Galusek - President of Microfinance Centre Krzysztof Jaczewski - President of Fundusz Mikro (Micro Fund),
• Bożena Lublińska-Kasprzak - President of Polska Agencja Rozwoju i Przedsiębiorczości (Polish Agency for Enterprise Development),
• Krzysztof Łabowski - Head of SME Department at Citi Handlowy,
• Prof. Elżbieta Mączyńska - President of Polskie Towarszystwo Ekonomiczne (Polish Economic Society),
• Andrzej Malinowski - President of the Konfederacja Pracodawców Polskich (Confederation of Polish Employers),
• Piotr Szczepański - President of the Fundacja Wspomagania Wsi (Rural Development Foundation),
• Dariusz Żuk - President of Akademickie Inkubatory Przedsiębiorczości (Academic Incubators of Entrepreneurship).

The winner of the fifth edition of the contest: the title of "Microentrepreneur of the Year 2009" and the PLN 30,000 award is Nexwell Engineering from Wrocław, a firm established by Michał Kowalczyk. Nexwell Engineering is a producer of household automatic systems. Nexwell's flagship product is NEXO, a flexible and user-friendly system for automating various elements of technical infrastructure in any household.

Along with the MAIN PRIZE, the jury nominated winners of equal second prizes:

3 in the category MAIN PRIZE (PLN 15,000), 3 in the category BEGINNERS (PLN 10,000), one in the category MICRO (PLN 8,000). Moreover, in the light of consistently high quality of nominations, the jury decided to distribute 5 equal honorary mentions. Each winner received a PLN 4,000.

The award giving ceremony was preceded by a presentation of findings in the survey:
"Bariery rozwoju mikroprzedsiębiorczości w Polsce (Barriers to the Growth of Microentrepreneurship in Poland)", executed in May 2009 by the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy in with expert support from Microfinanace Centre. The survey was conducted on a sample of 500 microenterprises by Pentor Research International. It indicated that as many as 44 % of all microfirms expected the number of legal-administrative barriers to grow in the coming year, while 59 % pointed to such barriers as key obstacles to launching a business. The survey revealed also that nearly 80 % of all respondents financed their enterprises from their own savings. As many as 76 % of Polish microentrepreneurs declared currently not using any other financing. This is caused by their reluctance to get in debt (36%) or no needs for outside financing (35%).