Four Nigerians have been shortlisted for the 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
One of them is Dele Sanni, a professor, who developed 3-D-3-P Industrial Dryer, an industrial food dryer that dries grain for livestock feed faster, and increases the nutritional value of food stocks.
Chukwunonso Arinze, who developed KAOSHI, an online platform that exchanges currencies peer-to-peer, cutting costs and waiting periods also made the cut.
Others are Obi Igbokwe who developed ‘WellNewMe’, an algorithmic approach to proactively identify people at risk of contracting non-communicable diseases, and Elizabeth is Kperrun.
Ms Elizabeth Kperrun is the first Nigerian woman to make the shortlist since the prize’s inception in 2014.
Kperrun , 32 , is the founder of Lizzie ’ s Creations, an outfit that develops mobile and web applications targeted at educating and enlightening women and children.
The Benue State – born entrepreneur is the creator of AfroTalez , an interactive story – telling app that narrates traditional African folk stories to children , to change a particular narrative.
She also developed Teseem , an app that teaches toddlers their first words and numeracy in local languages such as Hausa , Igbo , Yoruba and Swahili.
In 2014, she was listed by Forbes in the “ 10 Emerging Women Entrepreneurs To Watch In Africa . ”
She developed Zenafri, a series of mobile apps that teach toddlers and young children basic numeracy and literacy in their own language.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation encourages ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineers from all disciplines to apply their skills to develop scalable solutions to local challenges.
The shortlisted candidates were drawn from six countries, with five female engineers among them.
This information was gotten from the Royal Academy of engineering website.
As well as the chance of winning up to £25,000, each of the 16 shortlisted engineers will develop skills that last a lifetime, and become part of a growing community of talented African engineers working to accelerate socio-economic development through business.
After seven months’ mentoring and training, four finalists will be selected from the shortlist.
In June 2019, the finalists will present their businesses to judges in front of a live audience in Kampala, after which one winner will receive £25,000, and three runners up will be awarded £10,000 each.
Godwin Benson, the founder of Tuteria, an online platform that links students to qualified tutors in their area and within their budget, won the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation in 2017.
