The Innovators from nine African countries
including Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco,
Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe have been shortlisted for the
prestigious Prize.
These selected nominees, ITRealms
reports would pitch
their innovative projects to the esteemed IPA panel of jurors during
the closed pitch sessions on July 15th and 16th in
Accra.
Following their pitch,
three winners will be selected and announced during the Awards ceremony slated
for 18 July 2017 at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra.
Some of the finalists include:
Innovations in
communications and smart solutions
1.
Peris
Bosire, Kenya: FarmDrive
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 small holder 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
credit worthiness of farmers that has led to 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, South Africa: Lakheni, Turning Social Capital into Buying Power
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, Nigeria: Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis Software for African
Languages
This is a software
solution that can understand and digitize spoken African languages, and
synthesize speech from African languages presented as digitized text.
Digitizing 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 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, Democratic Republic of Congo: Lokole
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. Lokole achieves this
firstly by creating a shareable local area network where up to a hundred users
within a 25 meters’ radius can access the network and share the costs.
Secondly, it contains advanced algorithms that compress email and also
schedules uploads and downloads of data to when data bundles costs are at their
cheapest. Costs per user could be as little as $0.01/person/day. 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. Applications of Lokole include:
health (remote-doctor), education (remote-teacher), commerce (purchase orders
via email), business (attachment documents) and many more.
Leveraging artificial intelligence and mechanical solutions
5.
Badr
Idriss, Morocco: Atlan Space
Atlan Space develops
software technology that is then 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. UAVs operated by this
software can be launched and deployed into monitoring operations without having
an aircraft operator. Also, by using Artificial Intelligence they are able to
collect data, analyze and produce actionable reports. African governments
face numerous challenges in monitoring activities and operation over wide areas.
This includes border patrols, deforestation, animal poaching and maritime
activity. The software allows for the deployment of UAVs at a very cost
effective price without need for highly skilled human intervention and over a
wide number of uses.
6.
Aly
El-Shafei, Egypt: Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing
“SEMAJIB”
The patented
innovation (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, Liberia: New Technology for Rapid Detection of Many Infections Using Only
One Test
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. The innovation is easy to use in any setting and particularly in rural
areas. Additionally, the device is able to detect and distinguish multiple
infections which bear the same symptoms for instance, when a patient has yellow
fever, malaria, and Ebola. Whereas most testing methods take 3 – 7 days, this
device gives test results in 10 – 40 minutes. This would provide a significant
step in the detection and management of infectious diseases on the continent.
8.
Olanisun
Olufemi Adewole, Nigeria: Sweat TB Test, A non-invasive rapid skin test to
detect Tuberculosis
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. 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 with patients making repeated clinic visits before a diagnosis
is made. Delay in diagnosis and missed diagnosis of 3million TB cases occur
leading to continuous spread of the disease. Sweat TB Test leverages on
TB specific marker in 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, Zimbabwe: Dr. CADx
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% 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%
an improvement over the 70% 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, Uganda: Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set
(ECGF)
The Electronically
Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) is 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% 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 % at 48 hours. Erroneous delivery rates can
result into serious adverse effects. The ECGF solves this problem as it is very
easy to operate and has key safety features which include alarms for rate of
infusion (rapid or slow), total volume (over or under) and faulty sensors. A
battery utilizing 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%
the cost of a brand-new infusion pump.
Nonye Dom/GEE
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