The African Innovation Foundation has announced the top 10 nominees who will be contending for the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa , to be awarded in Accra, Ghana on 18th July 2017. And as expected Nigerians top the list with two Nominations.
Innovators from Nine African countries including Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe were also shortlisted for the prestigious Prize.
The event themed “African Innovation: Investing in Prosperity” is going to be the sixth IPA Award.
Here are the 10 Nominees for the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa
Innovations in communications and smart solutions
1. Peris Bosire – FarmDrive, Kenya
FarmDrive is a financial technology company that has developed a mobile phone-based application that collects data and provides an alternative risk assessment model for smallholder farmers. While the continent remains largely dependent on agriculture, one of the biggest challenges facing smallholder farmers is access to credit or finance.
Most financial institutions are reluctant to grant credit to farmers because their risk assessment models flag small farmers as being very risky. FarmDrive has developed a new methodology for assessing the credit-worthiness of farmers that has led to a higher acceptance rate of loan applications by farmers while maintaining a very low default rate.
This could have the effect of significantly boosting agricultural production on the continent while helping financial institutions cost effectively increase their agricultural loan portfolios.
2. Nokwethu Khojane – Lakheni, South Africa
Lakheni is a social and business model innovation, which seeks to aggregate low-income households into buying groups in order to negotiate favourable discounts for goods and services supplied to these households.
Most poor people end up paying for goods and services at a unit price that is usually much higher than the unit price paid by other people with more disposable income.
This is because as goods and services are packaged into smaller and smaller units to make them affordable, they become less economically efficient and end up costing higher than if one was to buy in bulk or in larger units. In essence, the poor end up paying a poverty premium.
Lakheni solves this problem by aggregating poor households into a buyer’s market by leveraging mobile technology.
3. Omolabake Adenle – Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis Software for African Languages, Nigeria
This is a software solution that can understand and digitise spoken African languages and synthesise speech from African languages presented as digitised text.
Digitising African languages in this way allows Africans to interact with hardware devices such as mobile phones, and digital services such as call-center applications by speaking their local language.
The software can be integrated into a wide range of devices and third-party software applications. While voice recognition and speech synthesis software have been developed for various Western and Asian languages, there has been a very limited commercial application or academic research for African languages.
The difficulty lies in modelling tonality present in most African languages and limited data resources for language modelling. This innovation opens up opportunities for Africans with low literacy levels to also enjoy the benefits of the digital revolution.
4. Nzola Swasisa- Lokole, Democratic Republic of Congo
Lokole, is a device that enables access to efficient email communication anywhere with cellular coverage at a price that is one hundred to one thousand times cheaper than accessing email via regular cellular bandwidth costs.
More than 71% of the African population doesn’t have access to efficient communications. Lokole solves this communication problem and enables many communities to access efficient communication for the first time.
Leveraging artificial intelligence and mechanical solutions
5. Badr Idriss – Atlan Space, Morocco
Atlan Space develops software technology that is deployed to manage the operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. The software is currently tested for use in managing operations in detecting illegal or harmful maritime activity such as illegal fishing or oil spills over wide expanse areas.
African governments face numerous challenges in monitoring activities and operation over wide areas. This includes border patrols, deforestation, animal poaching and maritime activity. And thats what the software wants to solve.. The software allows for the deployment of UAVs at a very cost effective price without the need for highly skilled human intervention and over a wide number of uses.
6. Aly El-Shafei – SEMAJIB, Egypt
The patented innovation Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing (SEMAJIB) presented by Dr. El-Shafei, is a smart bearing which is versatile and can change its characteristics as it operates.
It consists of a magnetic bearing imbedded in an oil-filled journal bearing, thus forming the smart controllable bearing.
The flooding of the bearing with oil is a game changer as the purpose of bearings has traditionally been to expel oil. There is a significant improvement in turbine performance using the SEMAJIB particularly in single line combined cycle plants, as well as conventional generator technology.
The device is designed to be used to support energy generating turbines and can be used to improve efficiency and reduce costs of generating energy in Africa.
Discoveries in healthcare solutions
7. Dougbeh-Chris Nyan – New Technology for Rapid Detection of Many Infections Using Only One Test, Liberia
This is a rapid diagnostic test that can detect and simultaneously differentiate at least three to seven infections at the same time within 10 to 40 minutes.
In most African countries, there is a lack of sophisticated diagnostic devices and limited expertise in high-tech diagnostics. This hinders the clinical decision-making ability of healthcare providers.
This test provides a solution to this clinical problem. Also Whereas most testing methods take 3 – 7 days, this device gives test results in 10 – 40 minutes.
The innovation is easy to use in any setting and particularly in rural areas.
8. Olanisun Olufemi Adewole – Sweat TB Test, Nigeria
Sweat TB Test is a non-invasive rapid diagnostic test to detect tuberculosis (TB). TB is second only to HIV/AIDS as a leading cause of death in Africa.
Currently, Available methods are high tech; cannot be deployed in rural centres, dependent only sputum which sometimes may not be collectible and considered messy by patients. It is also time-consuming.. On the ither hand, Sweat TB Test leverages on TB-specific marker in the sweat of patients, to produce a point- of- care test to detect TB, within ten minutes, without any needle prick. In simple steps, reports are read and patients commenced on medication as needed at the same clinic visit.
It has the potential to contribute towards effectively controlling TB, reduce TB-related deaths and holds promise to prevent drug resistance TB in Africa.
9. Gift Gana – Dr. CADx , Zimbabwe
Dr CADx is a software solution that helps doctors and health care workers diagnose medical images more accurately.
Due to the scarcity of radiologists on the continent, most medical images are read by general doctors or other health care workers who lack expertise and end up misdiagnosing more than 30 percent of the cases that they review. As a result, millions of patients fail to get the right treatment or the treatment is delayed leading to more complications and even death.
Dr CADx uses deep learning to interpret medical images and achieve an accuracy of 82 percent an improvement over the 70 percent average for radiologists.
Dr CADx is designed to work in low-resource settings with poor internet connectivity opening it up for use in many rural settings in Africa.
10. Philippa Ngaju Makobore – ECGF, Uganda
The Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) is a medical device designed to accurately administer intravenous (IV) fluids and drugs by controlling the rate of fluid flow based on feedback from a drop sensor.
Over 10 percent of children admitted to East African hospitals need immediate infusion therapy. Findings from the FEAST trial indicates that over-infusion in children increased the absolute risk of death by 3.3 percent at 48 hours. Erroneous delivery rates can result in serious adverse effects.
The ECGF solves this problem as it is very easy to operate and has key safety features which include alarms for the rate of infusion (rapid or slow), total volume (over or under) and faulty sensors. A battery utilising a hybrid (AC mains and solar) charging bed powers the device. The ECGF has the potential to save lives by providing accuracy and safety at 8 percent the cost of a brand-new infusion pump.
Prizes Up for grabs at the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA)
IPA 2017 will offer the following prizes and incentives to winners and nominees:
Grand prize of $100,000
Second Prize of $25,000
Special Prize for Social Impact $25,000
A voucher for each of the seven IPA nominees of $5,000
Additional incentives include investment opportunities, training and access to our vibrant network of innovation enablers, ongoing PR support and media coverage.
Source: VentureAfrica
