The Royal Academy of Engineering has nominated six Nigerians for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2021. The Nigerians, comprising four male and two female inventors, will compete with ten other Africans for the coveted Prize this year.
The Africa Prize, established in 2014 by the Royal Academy of Engineering, recognizes ambitious African inventors who are developing scalable engineering solutions to local difficulties.
This year’s shortlist included nine different countries. For the first time since the nomination process began, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Senegal, and Ethiopia are represented on the list. Six of the sixteen nominees are female inventors. Let’s now introduce the Nigerian candidates.
Jacob Azundah (Aevhas)
Garri is a classic West African cuisine that undergoes a lengthy and laborious manufacturing procedure. As a result, each innovation that aids its manufacture must be critical. This is what Jacob Azundah was able to do with his Aevhas high-efficiency garri processing system.
With the peeling, washing, grading, pressing, and draining completed, Aevhas moves on to the sifting and, most crucially, frying of the garri. Traditional frying methods might take up to 4 hours to produce a basin of garri, Aevhas does it in just 20 minutes.
“Many will be encouraged to return to farming because of the simplicity in processing garri, and as a result we can greatly reduce levels of poverty and hunger. We hope that an increase in the number of cassava farmers will bring about food security in Nigeria”, Azundah reveals.
Jacob Azundah graduated from Near East University in Nicosia, Cyprus, with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He expects that his idea, which is appropriate for both community-based companies and industrial use, would help Nigeria achieve food security.
Elohor Thomas (CodeLn)
Image: Twitter/CodeLN
Hiring the right people with the necessary qualifications and capacity to fill technical positions will always be difficult. But Elohor Thomas is standing up against that challenge. CodeLn is an automated tech recruitment tool that assists businesses wanting to employ software engineers.
A recruiter can submit a job specification on the web-based, artificial intelligence platform and immediately be matched with appropriate candidates using CodeLn’s recommendation engine. The recruiter could also put the candidate’s coding skills to the test and present them with an offer letter – all through one platform.
Elohor Thomas is a software developer who graduated from the University of Lagos with a Masters Degree in Systems Engineering (Artificial Intelligence). She attended MEST Africa and Y Combinator. She aspires to give resources for young African programmers to advance in their careers.
Olugbenga Olufemi Olubanjo (Reeddi)
Anyone who has lived in Nigeria understands that power is the most pressing issue. This is especially true for persons living in rural areas. Power is a challenge that successive governments have failed to handle. Olugbenga Olufemi Olubanjo, a control systems engineer, is achieving just that with his energy system, Reeddi.
After experiencing numerous blackouts, Olugbenga Olubanjo decided enough was enough and created the ‘always ready’ Reeddi capsule system. This portable system provides electricity to communities and businesses without electricity, at an affordable price. His targets, however, are the low-income rural areas of Subsaharan Africa.
Olugbenga works in the field of control systems engineering. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Ibadan before going on to earn a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Ontario. Reeddi was one of the RBC Winners for Innovation and Entrepreneurship prize at the University of Toronto in 2020.
Taofeek Olalekan (RealDrip)
Image: LinkdIn
While maternal mortality in Nigeria is decreasing in line with global data, much more needs to be done. 1 in 22, compared to 1 in 4,900 in developed countries, is still quite low. The infant mortality rate of 181 per 1,000 live births in 2020 might be stated to be the same, despite a 2.44% decrease from 2019.
Taofeek Olalekan’s RealDrip, if widely used, has the potential to dramatically reduce these values. A medical expert device that simplifies intravenous therapy for drip and blood transfusions for pregnant women, this N76,000 ($200) device would crash the cost of infusion pumps from between $5,000-$15,000 (N1.9m-N5.7m) and provide access to precise and smart infusion at a 96% price reduction.
Taofeek Olalekan is a Machine Learning and IoT engineer. He graduated with honors from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Electronics. 27 hospitals have preordered RealDrip, which has been approved for production.
Yusuf Bilesanmi (ShiVent)
A ventilator has proven to be particularly efficient in treating patients as the world battles the deadly Covid-19 global outbreak. Unfortunately, African countries are acutely short of resources, and this is the situation that Yusuf Bilesanmi’s Shifatech is addressing with Shivent.
Shivent is a non-electric, non-invasive ventilator for people with respiratory problems that may be used by almost anyone. The gadget is inexpensive and only requires 150 to 200 cylinders of oxygen per day (normal ventilators use up to 400 cylinders of oxygen a day).
Yusuf is a business developer specializing on energy and infrastructure. He earned a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Lagos before pursuing an MSC in Smart Grid Systems from Waseda University in Japan. He thinks that his method would benefit under-resourced clinics with unpredictable power and limited access to specialist knowledge.
Faith Adesemowo (Social Lender)
There is an ongoing discussion over financial inclusion and whether the offered solutions truly help the underprivileged or are simply expansions of pre-existing services. Faith Adesemowo’s solution, Social Lender, aims to provide financial opportunities to people who have never had them before.
Social Lender collaborates with service providers such as banks, microfinance institutions, microinsurance businesses, and agricultural input firms to give facilities to more than half of Africans who do not have access to conventional credit. This population includes farmers, traders, artisans, young professionals, small business owners, students etc.
Faith Adesemowo is a finance professional with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from the University of Ilorin. She went on to complete a Post Graduate Degree in Business Administration at the University of Warwick.
About The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation was founded in 2014 with the goal of recognizing exceptional African engineers. Nominees must have a creative engineering product or service that solves a real problem for a community in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Applicants must also offer solutions with the ability to scale beyond their current target market, realistic and scalable business concepts, and entrepreneurial founding teams and potentials. Their solutions must also be capable of providing social and/or environmental advantages to a country or countries in question.
According to Cordelia Burch, Programme Manager, Africa Reward for Engineering Innovation, the prize includes an eight-month program that includes intense and targeted entrepreneurial training from business leaders across Africa, as well as media support and photography.
After completing the program, the entrepreneurs become members of the Africa Prize alumni group, which includes (now) over 80 engineering innovators and businesses from 12 African nations.
The 2021 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation winner will be announced during a final event in July. At the event, four finalists will propose their innovations after being pre-selected from a shortlist of 16 by a Judging panel. The winner will receive £25,000, while the other three finalists will each receive £10,000.
