Ugandan innovator Martin Tumusiime is among the many 4 finalist competing for a £50,000 (About Shs235 million) Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
Mr Tumusiime is shortlisted for Yo-Waste, an app that permits individuals to schedule a home waste pickup in Kampala on the faucet of their smartphone.
This 12 months’s winner will obtain a prize of £50,000, with the opposite three finalists receiving £15,000 every – that means Mr Tumusiime and his Yo- Waste workforce are already Shs70 million richer.
The Royal Academy of Engineering may also give out £5,000 prize underneath its ‘One to Watch’ banner – awarded to one of many shortlist of 16 whose enterprise reveals essentially the most potential.
“The prize is double the quantity of earlier years in recognition of the Africa Prize’s ten-year anniversary,” the Royal Academy of Engineering stated in a Could 14 assertion.
The awards kind a part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s funding of over £1 million to African innovators by grants, prizes and accelerator programme locations through the tenth anniversary 12 months of the Africa Prize.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, based by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, is Africa’s greatest prize devoted to engineering innovation.
The Prize awards commercialisation help to African innovators creating scalable engineering options to native challenges. These improvements present the significance of engineering in bettering high quality of life and financial improvement.
The Royal Academy of Engineering will host the ultimate of the tenth Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation on June 13 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Mr Tumusiime is vying to maintain the prize – received by Anatoli Kirigwajjo final 12 months – residence and develop into the third Ugandan to money in and develop their modern concepts to communities they serve.
He’s up towards two Kenyans, Kevin Maina and Esther Kimani, who each need to emulate their compatriot Norah Magero who has benefited from profitable the highest prize, and Rory Assandey from Ivory Coast, the native of 2020 and 2021 winners Charlette N’Guessan and Noël N’guessan.
The Royal Academy of Engineering stated the 4 finalists have developed options, together with an environmentally-friendly roofing materials comprised of recycled plastic and a wise healthcare platform offering direct entry to important healthcare info by way of WhatsApp.
It hailed the location-based cell app connecting clients to impartial brokers for on-demand garbage assortment and disposal, and a solar-powered instrument utilizing AI and machine learning-enabled cameras to detect and determine agricultural pests and illnesses.
These improvements immediately handle the UN’s Sustainable Growth Targets, together with zero starvation, good well being and wellbeing, sustainable cities and communities, diminished inequalities and local weather motion.
Africa Prize Choose John Lazar CBE stated 2024 has been one among our most troublesome shortlists to determine but.
“We had a file variety of functions which we shortlisted right down to sixteen, and now we have narrowed it right down to our 4 distinctive finalists,” he stated.
“Esther Kimani, Kevin Maina, Rory Assandey and Martin Tumusiime are examples of engineering excellence in Africa, and the Royal Academy of Engineering is proud to have performed a component of their improvement journeys. These are people who we all know will encourage the subsequent technology of changemakers on the continent. Selecting a winner shouldn’t be going to be simple.”
Dr Lazar stated the Royal Academy of Engineering has supported virtually 150 entrepreneurs throughout 23 African international locations.
“Our lively alumni community gives lifelong help to our rising group, which has created greater than 28,000 jobs, with greater than ten million individuals having benefitted from shortlisted improvements over the previous decade.
“Because of this in 2024, the Academy is investing greater than £1 million in our alumni by grants, prizes and accelerator programme awards to facilitate longer-term success of their improvements.”
Inside Yo-Waste
Already assured of Shs70 million by advantage of turning into a finalist, Mr Tumusiime informed the Nile Submit that they may use the cash to create extra consciousness about their answer in Kampala and in addition to market and enroll extra customers.
The Yo-Waste thought was impressed by the private experiences of Mr Tumusiime, who grew up in Hoima earlier than transferring to reside along with his aunt in Kampala the place he witnessed firsthand the ache that plenty of households and companies in city areas undergo to handle their waste.
Impressed by the chance, In 2018, Tumusiime teamed up with 4 mates to enterprise right into a technology-based waste administration startup that would present an answer to a few of the greatest issues confronted within the waste administration trade of the continent.
Mr Tumusiime, Gideon Mpungu, Lubowa Enock, Namuli Brenda and Rogers Kibuule all have a background in pc science.
The idea was piloted in 2019 with help from Makerere College’s School of Computing and Data Sciences in areas of Kisaasi and downtown and the size up plan was initiated in 2020 to convey the concept to each waste generator in city communities.
“We work with a community of native waste firms that provide dependable and reasonably priced waste assortment companies to houses in Kampala,” Mr Tumusiime informed this information web site.
“As a substitute of dumping waste in water channels or streets individuals can use our app to correctly get rid of their waste eliminating waste air pollution in our communities and bettering cleanliness of our neighbourhoods.”
Yo-Waste options such because the hauler app permits waste pickers who personal a truck to enroll as associate rubbish collectors and get entry to quite a lot of our clients that want their companies.
The 2024 Africa Prize finalists have been chosen from a shortlist of innovators who’re making use of engineering to resolve issues confronted by their communities.
The finalist choice occurred following an eight-month coaching and mentoring programme, throughout which consultants offered tailor-made, one-on-one help designed to speed up and strengthen the companies of every member of the shortlist.
Coaching coated enterprise plans, scaling, recruitment, IP safety, sector-specific engineering mentoring, communication, financing and commercialisation.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, based by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014, is Africa’s greatest prize devoted to creating African innovators and serving to them to maximise their influence.
The Africa Prize has been generously supported by the UK authorities, together with the UK’s International Challenges Analysis Fund and the Division for Science, Innovation and Know-how’s Official Growth Help funding, in addition to charitable trusts and foundations, particular person donors and company companions during the last ten years.
2024 Finalists:
Yo-Waste, Martin Tumusiime, Uganda:
· Addressing Uganda’s mounting waste disaster, Yo-Waste is a location-based cell utility that connects houses and companies to impartial brokers for environment friendly on-demand garbage assortment and disposal.
· The know-how makes use of routing and scheduling algorithms to optimise waste assortment routes, which reduces prices and improves effectivity. It has GPS location know-how to pinpoint assortment factors, which overcomes the problem of individuals not having official addresses in casual residential areas.
· Yo-Waste at the moment serves over 1,500 clients together with houses, companies, and waste assortment brokers, with a aim to achieve 20,000 customers by 2026.
· With solely 40 p.c of waste disposed of correctly in Africa, Yo-Waste’s modern strategy tackles environmental air pollution and well being hazards brought on by open dumpsites.
Early Crop Pest and Illness Detection System, Esther Kimani, Kenya:
· A solar-powered instrument utilising AI and machine learning-enabled cameras to swiftly detect and determine agricultural pests and illnesses, lowering crop losses for smallholder farmers by as much as 30% whereas rising yields by as a lot as 40%.
· Kimani’s innovation not solely offers real-time alerts inside 5 seconds of an infestation, providing tailor-made intervention strategies, but in addition alerts authorities agricultural officers to the presence of illnesses or pests, contributing to broader agricultural administration efforts.
· This reasonably priced different to conventional detection strategies leases for simply $3 monthly, considerably cheaper than hiring drones or agricultural inspectors, and in addition offers precious information for policymakers by an agricultural live-tracking information dashboard.
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Eco Tiles, Kevin Maina, Kenya:
· An environmentally pleasant roofing materials comprised of recycled plastic. Stronger and lighter than clay or concrete tiles, the innovation is a twin answer to plastic air pollution and excessive constructing prices.
· Kevin and his workforce work with 500 casual waste collectors who present plastics, together with high-density polymers and lighter polyethene.
· The modern manufacturing course of includes a custom-made extrusion machine that blends completely different plastics at various temperatures, eliminating the necessity for energy-intensive processes like kiln-burning and lowering carbon emissions. The tiles are enhanced with UV stabilisation chemical substances and building sand to enhance sturdiness and sturdiness.
· With a manufacturing price of 1,500 tiles every day, every tile is pressed in a minute. Half 1,000,000 Eco Tiles have been used to this point within the building of 348 homes.
La Ruche Well being, Rory Assandey, Côte d’Ivoire:
· La Ruche Well being connects communities to important well being info, recommendation, and companies by “Kiko”, an AI chatbot instrument obtainable on WhatsApp and cell apps, and a digital backend answer to streamline documentation, billing, and information sharing for practitioners.
· Recognising the fragmented healthcare community in Côte d’Ivoire, La Ruche Well being addresses accessibility boundaries for the 43 p.c of the inhabitants with restricted literacy abilities.
· Kiko serves because the affected person’s preliminary level of contact, providing personalised screening and facilitating appointments with certified healthcare professionals.
· By Could 2024, the AI has facilitated over 150,000 consumer interactions and 189 in-home and teleconsultation appointments, processing over $18,000 in medical billings, illustrating its effectiveness and scalability.
