- Sixteen talented entrepreneurs have been selected from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia
- Shortlist will compete for the £25,000 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
This year’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation shortlist includes the creators of a low-cost ventilator powered by water instead of electricity, a digital financial services solution that audits users based on their online social profiles, and sustainable packaging developed from banana stems to help battle plastic pollution and deforestation.
The Africa Prize, run every year by the UK’s Royal Academy of
Engineering, awards crucial commercialisation support to ambitious African
innovators who are transforming their communities through scalable engineering
solutions. The 2021 shortlist represents nine countries including, for the
first time, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Ethiopia
and the Gambia. Six of the 16-strong shortlist are female innovators.
The programme has a
track record of identifying engineering entrepreneurs with significant
potential, many of whom have gone on to achieve greater commercial success and
social impact.
A unique package of
support – running from December 2020 to July 2021 – is being provided to the
shortlisted innovators to help them accelerate their businesses. The benefits
of selection include comprehensive and tailored business training, bespoke
mentoring, media and communications training, funding and access to the
Academy’s network of high-profile, experienced engineers and business experts based
in the UK and across Africa, as well as access to the alumni network after the
programme concludes. This year marks the first fully digital programme,
providing intensive
expert guidance and community support through a mixture of online group and
one-on-one sessions.
Following this period of support, four finalists will be selected and
invited to pitch their improved innovation and business plan to the judges and
a live audience. A winner will be selected to receive £25,000, and three
runners up will receive £10,000 each.
“The
Africa Prize helps to accelerate entrepreneurial capacity and ecosystems. I am
excited to follow the progress of this year’s cohort, and am certain we will
see many of these inventions go on to create and sustain jobs and benefit our
societies, as so many of the previous participants in the Africa Prize have
done.”
Alumni of the Prize
are projected to impact over three million lives in the next five years and
have already created over 1500 jobs and raised more than $14 million in grants and equity.
Africa Prize alumni
have also played an important role in supporting the continent’s COVID-19
pandemic response, with the programme’s training and additional Academy funding
helping them pivot their businesses and address community needs. Together, they
reached over 220,000 people with innovations including affordable hand
sanitizer, remote education, 3D-printed PPE, access to finance for smallholder
farmers and a track and trace platform allowing worshippers to attend religious
services.
The 2021 shortlist includes innovations that provide exciting solutions
for key challenges addressing most of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,
including reducing waste, improving healthcare efficiency, and a range of
digital solutions to improve business productivity. The companies range from
transforming banana and plantain stems to biodegradable paper packaging
products, a low-cost biowaste processing machine for farmers to manage
biowaste, a high efficiency machine used to process garri, and bioplastic made
from biomass which dissolves in water. The entrepreneurs have also developed a cost-effective
3D printed prosthetic hand for people with upper limb amputations, 3D printed orthopaedic
equipment for patients and healthcare workers, a low-cost non-electric and
non-invasive ventilator for patients with respiratory difficulties, a device that
uses artificial intelligence to simplify intravenous therapy, and a digital
healthcare platform which manages the medical data of patients to ensure continuity
of care.
Other innovations selected aim to improve business productivity and
upskill students and job seekers, such as a cloud-based application to help
increase the productivity of waste management and other service-based businesses,
a tech recruitment platform for companies to hire software engineers, a
smartphone application that uses AI to teach coding, and a digital workspace
which connects brands in the media industry with local content creators. There
is also a digital financial services solution that uses a social reputation
score to provide formal financial services to those without access to a
smartphone or bank account.
The Academy also runs other complementary innovation programmes in
Africa. The Africa Innovation Fellowship, in partnership with WomEng, aims to
increase female participation in engineering innovation and entrepreneurship
across the continent, and the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF)
programme, which supports innovators in 16 countries including Egypt, Kenya and
South Africa.
The complete list of selected technologies and candidates includes:
Innovator: Jacob Azundah
Innovation: Aevhas
Country: Nigeria
Portrait of Jacob Olorunfemi Azundah at his Garri Processing workshop at 94 Olu Obasanjo Road, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. 22 January 2021. Credit: RAEng/GGImages/BensonIbeabuchi |
The Aevhas processing machine can also sieve and fry either
simultaneously, or at separate intervals. Processing cassava roots is laborious
and time-consuming; conventional Garri processing machines can take up to four
hours to sieve and fry, only producing a single basin of garri. This
discourages many from going into cassava farming, while most current cassava
farmers remain committed to the manual processing method.
This led mechanical engineer Jacob Azundah to design Aevhas,
created to sieve and fry the cassava tubes in 20 minutes, significantly
reducing barriers to profitability in the sector.
A motor drives an input shaft connected to a set of
sprockets and chains. The sieving unit sieves the Garri using a pulveriser,
breaking it down into small particles which are collected into a sieving
chamber where they are separated from the chaff. A worker then engages the
fryer, placing the now caked cassava into a carrier with curved blades. This
carrier rotates about an axis, tossing the garri until it is ready for
discharge. Aevhas is suitable for both community-based businesses and
industrial use.
Pull quote: “Many will be encouraged to return to farming
because of the simplicity in processing Garri, and as a result, we can greatly
reduce levels of poverty and hunger. We hope that an increase in the number of
cassava farmers will bring about food security in Nigeria.”
Find out more about Jacob Azundah online: Facebook and LinkedIn.
Innovator: Elohor Thomas
Innovation: CodeLn
Country: Nigeria
Elohor Thomas with her innovation CodeLn in Lagos, Nigeria. Elohor is a nominee for the Africa Prize for Engineering 2021. Photo @Leke Alabi Isama/GGImages/Proof Africa |
The web-based platform streamlines the recruitment process
from three months to two weeks, allowing companies to source, screen, and
interview potential candidates. A recruiter can post a job specification,
immediately get matched with suitable candidates via CodeLn’s recommendation
system, test the coding skills of the candidate and present them with an offer
letter – all through one platform.
The artificial intelligence system can be integrated into
existing apps and systems. Users can grow their skills through the platform’s
Learning Assistant feature built on Google Assistant. Coders can expand their
portfolios using CodeLn’s project-based skills assessments and qualify for
their dream jobs. Job applicants will take a work sample test similar to what they
will be employed to build. The test is monitored for cheating, and the product
is graded according to programming and language framework best practices.
Systems engineer Elohor Thomas and her cofounders met during
training at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, where they
shared their frustrations on the time-consuming recruitment process for
software engineers. CodeLn is their solution.
Pull quote: “CodeLn is connecting African programmers to
local and global job opportunities and providing them with the resources to
grow in their careers. With over 100 million new tech jobs projected globally
by 2025, we are preparing African youths and software engineers for new and
exciting opportunities.”
Find out more about Elohor Thomas online: Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Innovator: Faith Adesemowo
Innovation: Social Lender
Country: Nigeria
Credit: RAEng/HollisPhotographyUK |
Social Lender partners with service providers like banks,
microfinance institutions, micro-insurance companies and agricultural input
companies to offer facilities based on Social Reputation Scores. In ten minutes,
t’s proprietary algorithm can perform a social audit of users based on their
mobile, social media and other online activity. This digital fingerprint allows
them to access credit, microinsurance organisations, farm inputs and other
services. Members of their network are also able to act as social guarantors or
referees for their activities.
Users can access Social Lender’s platform through the
internet, SMS, USSD, mobile apps, APIs or partner bank ATMs. Social Lender
ambassadors visit communities that do not have smartphones and help them access
the platform.
More than 50% of Africans lack access to formal financial
services. Most of these people are farmers, traders, artisans, young
professionals, small business owners and students. Finance specialist Faith
Adesemowo saw a need to address this challenge. Five years on from developing
Social Lender, the platform has impacted the lives of more than 100,000
customers in Nigeria and South Africa.
Pull quote: “We aim to reach one million users in Nigeria in
the next 12 months and help them gain access to financial services using the
Social Reputation Score. They will also receive services such as financial
literacy training, agricultural extension best practices training, and
biometric registration for onboarding to Social Lender.”
Find out more about Faith Adesemowo online: Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Innovator: Olugbenga Olufemi Olubanjo
Innovation: Reeddi
Country: Nigeria
October 18, 2019 – Olugbenga Olubanjo, founder and CEO of Reeddi (Photo by Perry King) |
Following the personal experience of countless blackouts and
brownouts, control systems engineer Olugbenga Olubanjo developed the ’always
ready’ Reeddi capsule system. Reeddi provides power to communities and
businesses without electricity, at an affordable price. Its portable nature
gives users to access electricity anywhere they go.
Reeddi capsules contain lithium-ion cells, improved by a
proprietary battery optimisation algorithm to extend the lifespan of the
capsule from two to four years, an increase from 500 to more than 1,200 charge
cycles.
The energy system is divided into three parts: the
brick-sized energy capsule, which stores electricity provided to users; energy
crates, which are used to store the energy capsules when distributing or
collecting them for recharging; and the recharging station. Reeddi capsules
have a built-in wireless data transfer feature, which saves information related
to energy usage, device location, battery levels, device analytics and general
customer information. Energy usage data is used to optimise local operations
and understand customers’ energy requirements.
Reeddi customers save up to 30% on their usual energy
expenses with access to power anywhere, anytime. Reeddi currently recharges the
capsules at a central location but intends to erect solar-powered energy
charging stations in communities, allowing customers to recharge capsules
themselves.
Reeddi currently serves more than 600 households and
businesses each month, aiming to increase to 10,000 monthly customers across
Nigeria in 2021.
Pull quote: “Reeddi’s novel solution relieves users of the
mobility, cost, payment and flexibility constraints of other energy-generating
options. When you need a reliable electricity supply, we are always ready’ with
Reeddi.”
Find out more about Olugbenga Olufemi Olubanjo online: Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Innovator: Taofeek Olalekan
Innovation: RealDrip
Country: Nigeria
Taofeek Olalekan Afeez with his innovation the RealDrip in Lagos, Nigeria. Olalekan is a nominee for the Africa Prize for Engineering 2021. Photo @Leke Alabi Isama/GGImages/Proof Africa |
In the US and other high-income countries, typical infusion
pumps cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 and are not easily available.
RealDrip improves access to precise and smart infusion at a 96% price
reduction, with the units currently under development priced at $200.
Created by electronics engineer Taofeek Olalekan, the device
is specifically aimed at maternal care units, to administer precise infusions
to pregnant women during drip and blood transfusion treatments.
Olalekan hopes that RealDrip will not only improve access to
infusion procedures but also free up essential medical professionals who work
in ICUs, where infusion pumps are typically used. Where traditional infusion
pumps require constant manual input and attention, RealDrip updates healthcare
professionals remotely via web services and alerts. Using artificial
intelligence to monitor dosages, flow rates and intake time, healthcare
professionals no longer need to monitor patients’ infusions manually.
The system also stores each patient’s medical status,
allowing medical practitioners to quickly calculate correct infusion drip
rates. Current processes also require constant retraining on the traditional
and complex infusion procedures, but unlike existing clinical tools, RealDrip
is very simple to use.
The device operates via a dual-core chip with in-built
Wi-Fi, allowing for two-way communication (M2M). Consisting of biosensors that
measure and track the intravenous fluid, RealDrip uses edge computing to reduce
latency and ensure timely responses from the RealDrip for measurement,
analytics and data transmission to the cloud. An Anomaly Detection Algorithm
improves efficiency, and an Automatic Reasoning Algorithm predicts, adjusts and
maintains flow rate.
Following a successful clinical trial in Nigeria and
regulatory approval, Olalekan and his team are now in the final design phase
before manufacturing units for 27 hospitals that have pre-ordered RealDrip.
Pull quote: “We have positioned the product to potentially
save the lives of 76,000 pregnant women and 500,000 babies every year. We are
using the Internet of Things to shift healthcare from curing the sickness to
enabling wellness.”
Find out more about Taofeek Olalekan online: Website, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Innovator: Yusuf Bilesanmi
Innovation: ShiVent
Country: Nigeria
Credit: RAEng/HollisPhotographyUK |
The high price and shortage of mechanical ventilator systems
in Africa have contributed to the deaths of thousands of patients. ShiVent is
designed for under-resourced clinics with unreliable electricity supply and
limited access to specialist knowledge. Energy infrastructure engineer Yusuf
Bilesanmi and his team developed ShiVent in response to the strain placed on
healthcare systems during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using the principles of Bubble
CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), the ShiVent blends air with a
high-flow oxygen supply using a specifically designed Venturis air blender and
delivers this to a patient still able to breathe by themselves. This is
critical to the survival of patients experiencing respiratory distress.
The device only requires 150 to 200 cylinders of oxygen a
day, at a rate of 5 to 12 litres of oxygen per minute (lpm). The Lagos State
government currently uses 400 cylinders of oxygen a day, at 15 lpm.
With a global surge in Covid-19 cases, many countries’
healthcare systems lack the capacity to tackle this new challenge. Nigeria has
as few as 288 mechanical ventilators serving almost 200 million people. The
ShiVent is a simple, low-cost ventilatory alternative that does not depend on
electricity and is widely replicable.
ShiVent has completed functionality testing at the National
Centre for Sports and Exercise and Medicine at Loughborough University and
Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital. It has also undergone preliminary clinical
feasibility tests at NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, Glenfield
Hospital, renowned for coronary and respiratory diseases. The results
demonstrate that the device is indeed functional and meets CPAP requirements
set by the Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency in the United Kingdom.
Pull quote: “In designing our solution, we noted the requirements and guidance of the NHS and MHRA (Medicines and Health Regulations Authority) in the UK on the standards required for a medically-compliant ventilator. After 10 weeks of development and testing, we are proud to introduce what we call the ShiVent, a Bubble Continuous Positive Air Pressure device.”
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