Africa's top 50 innovators announced

The Africa Innovation Summit (AIS) serves as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue and a catalyst for coalition and action towards building robust innovation ecosystems in Africa.

AIS will take place from 6 - 8 June 2018 in Rwanda under the esteemed patronage of President Paul Kagame and Pedro Pires (ex-President of Cabo Verde and 2011 Mo Ibrahim Laureate). This is the second AIS forum and AIS 2018 will focus on innovation as a tool to address Africa’s pressing challenges.

An important aspect of AIS 2018 will focus on profiling and supporting solutions that are already examples of how Africa is addressing her challenges with new and innovative thinking. As such, AIS 2018 Innovation Track and Exhibition is an integral part of the summit.

The exhibition will showcase home-grown innovations on the continent. Dr Olugbenga Adesida, director of the AIS, explains: “It is heartwarming to see so many Africans engaged in trying to find solutions to the pressing challenges facing the continent. The hope which we have is to build the AIS into a platform that will support innovators, refine the ideas and scale them up across Africa and the World.

“Also important, we need all Africans, especially those with the power to act, to actively engage in building innovation driven societies in Africa.”

Over 600 innovation submissions were received from 44 African countries: including Morocco, Tunisia, Mali, Gambia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Congo, Comoros, Mozambique, Lesotho and Namibia, to name a few, with the majority being submitted from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania.

Applications were accepted in one of three categories: either idea stage; ready to commercialise (minimal viable product); or ready to scale. The focus is on innovators who are tackling the challenges in Water and Sanitation, food security and agriculture, healthcare, governance and energy.

Below are some of the AIS 2018 innovators:

Pidson Abaho, PedalTap, Uganda
James Dick, Food Security for Everyone, South Africa
Victor Shikoli, HYDROIQ, Kenya
Immanuel Hango, Chlorine Production Using Solar Energy, Namibia
Venuste Kubwimana, School Water Kiosks, Rwanda
Emmanuel Noah, BenBen, Ghana
Carlos dos Santos, IGRPWeb 1.0, Cape Verde
Jackline Kemigisa, Parliament Watch Uganda, Uganda
Chifungu Samazaka, Recyclebot, Zambia
Clement Mokoenene, Vehicle Energy Harvesting System (VEHS), South Africa
Bryan Mwangi, Pyro-Degrade Waste Management Solutions, Kenya
Simbarashe Mhuriro, Oxygen Energy Commercial Rooftop Solar Solutions, Zimbabwe
Tony Nyagah, Strauss Energy, Kenya
Ahmed Abbas, SunCity, Egypt
Zachary Mbuthia, Prosol Limited, Kenya
Zuko Mandlakazi Senso, South Africa
James Makumbi, The EpiTent, Uganda
Joan Nalubega, Union-Ganics (Uganics), Uganda
Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, The Nyan-Test, Liberia
Atef Ali, Sign Heroes, Egypt

To see a list of all the innovators, please see here.

AIS has partnered with Enterpriseroom, a transformation consultancy specialising in starting, sustaining, and accelerating enterprises, to drive the sourcing and selection process. Tracey Webster CEO of Enterpriseroom, said: “The evaluation process was extremely thorough, and we are grateful for the valuable support of a panel of 25 leading African experts from across all sectors and regions, who served as evaluators in the review process.

“We ensured that we had French speaking sector experts vetting the francophone countries to ensure that every application received an equal chance in the process.”

Other key sponsors of the summit and Innovation Track include Government of Rwanda, Government of Cabo Verde, the European Union, Luxembourg, African Development Bank, Development Bank of Southern Africa, NEPAD, United Nations Development Programme and Accenture.