One of Africa’s foremost arenas for nurturing and rewarding indigenous creative inventors and pioneers, the annual Innovation Prize for Africa, is gearing up for its prestigious 2016 awards event in the Botswana capital of Gaborone.
The Botswana Innovation Hub, the southern African country’s first science and technology park, will play host to the African Innovation Forum’s (AIF) event which carries a $150,000 total prize fund. The Gaborone Hub itself was created to cement Botswana’s role in Africa’s rapidly advancing technology industries.
In its fifth year, the Innovation Prize for Africa was set up to “honour and encourage innovative achievements that contribute towards developing new products, increasing efficiency, or saving cost in Africa,” the AIF states.
This year’s IPA is has the theme of ‘Made in Africa spirit’. Having attracted 6000 entrants from fifty different countries last year, the Innovation Prize for Africa is a truly pan-continental affair.
A solar panel mounted on a traditional straw roof. (Courtesy: EEF)
As well as rewarding the top three inventors and entrepreneurs financially – 1st prize is $100,000 for best innovation which is also highly marketable and with clear business potential, and two Runners-Up prizes of $25,000. In addition prize-winners are given support for their products to make maximum social impact. There is also a special prize for social impact innovation.
The AIF stays very much hands-on after the IPA awards ceremony, with ten of the best innovations submitted by women selected for further support and guidance. Young people are also on the target list of the AIF’s continuing efforts. Ten young innovators under 26 will be provided with mentoring to help them mobilise support and move their projects forward. In addition, the IPA will specially select five innovators for the ‘Do-Tank’ design workshop. Being taken under the wing of the AIF, will benefit those selected by working closely with experts to improve design, and make ideas more marketable.
At the 2015 IPA awards in Morocco the three winners, two men and one woman, had devised innovative measures in agriculture and health. The winner, Professor Adnane Remmal synthesised an alternative treatment for livestock immunisation without anti-biotics. Any improvements in combating rampant disease and fighting ill health, both scourges of the African continent, could turn out to be invaluable to furthering Africa’s pursuit towards prosperity and security.
