Africa-Press – Lesotho. For the first time, two innovators win the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation; South African Edmund Wessels and Ugandan Anatoli Kirigwajjo. Edmund Wessels, a South African biomedical engineer, and Anatoli Kirigwajjo, a Ugandan electrical engineer, have jointly won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2023 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
YUNGA Kirigwajjo wins with YUNGA, a local digital security network that connects neighbours to each other and police within a 20 kilometre radius through a physical device, smartphone app or SMS service, providing security at low cost.
Nearly 1,000 households in 30 communities across central Uganda are already on the YUNGA network, which has successfully prevented around 130 break-ins and related crimes.
The team is aiming to connect 32,000 households across Uganda in the next two years. “I developed YUNGA after losing USD 1,300 worth of assets in a break-in, with little chance of the thieves being caught.
We hope that with our household networks, communities will become harder targets for criminals. This will ensure safety, which in turn will create the space for economic activities to thrive,” says Kirigwajjo.
He and his co-founders, Kawesa Nasser and Kasoma Fredrick, say that winning the Africa Prize will give their business exposure in new markets across Africa.
“It will open the door to additional resources such as investments and stakeholder partnerships.
The prize money will allow us to add more than 1,000 households to the YUNGA network, with a focus on women-led homes, which are more vulnerable to crime in low-resource settings.
This is an invaluable opportunity in our efforts to scale up,” adds Kirigwajjo. In the YUNGA network, communities are divided into networks of 10 to 30 households, each receiving a device connected to a local area network.
In cases of emergency, pressing a button sets off a loud alarm on all devices connected to the network, and sends a message with the victim’s details to other devices, prompting a community response.
The system includes motion sensors for when users leave their homes or businesses. YUNGA also operates in areas with no internet through a long-range wide area network. YUNGA reduces response times by hours to the shortest time possible for members of the network to reach someone in danger.
“YUNGA revolutionises communication in low-resource areas, providing a digital network for swift and efficient responses to crimes, enhancing safety for entire communities.
YUNGA aims to reach more than 30,000 households and 150,000 individuals by 2025,” says Kirigwajjo. “The Africa Prize programme has already helped us become more investment-ready, raise capital, improve and market our product, and grow our customer base by almost 60%!”
FlexiGyn Wessels wins with FlexiGyn, a battery-powered, portable handheld device that enables gynaecologists to diagnose and treat women’s uterine problems without anaesthetic or expensive equipment.
It aims to increase women’s access to reproductive healthcare, particularly in remote areas. Typical hysteroscopy systems are rigid, leading to high levels of patient discomfort, requiring bulky additional equipment for visualisation.
The innovative FlexiGyn features a flexible scope with built-in light and camera, offering a more comfortable and efficient experience for both patients and healthcare providers.
“My co-founder, Chris Meunier and I aim to bring healthcare to a woman’s doorstep, precisely when and where they need it.
FlexiGyn is portable, intuitive and user-friendly, allowing gynaecologists to offer quality screenings and timely interventions regardless of the patient’s location or lack of medical infrastructure.
At the same time, it is designed to minimise discomfort,” says Wessels. “We are excited beyond belief to win the Africa Prize and know that this will help to get our name out and find the right partners to complete FlexiGyn’s journey.
In addition to the hardware, Wessels and his team are developing integrated software solutions that seamlessly connect the FlexiGyn device with existing medical practice systems, including obstetricians and gynaecologists to general practitioners, radically increasing the frequency of diagnoses.
Streamlining patient scheduling, electronic health record synchronisation and AI-assisted diagnosis, this improved efficiency and collaboration enables healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat patients more frequently, enhancing the overall quality of care.
“Winning the Africa Prize enhances our purpose to make women’s healthcare convenient and accessible.
The more visibility we get, the more likely others will start to innovate in this space too, solving problems for the people who need it most,” says Wessels. Africa Prize
Wessels and Kirigwajjo have each been awarded first prize for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, taking home £25,000 (587,670 ZAR)/(117,240,700 UGX) to further develop their products. Four finalists delivered pitches at the awards ceremony held yesterday in Accra, Ghana, before a panel of judges chose the winners.
Africa Prize judge Rebecca Enonchong FREng, said “Home security is an every day issue for so many people across Africa – we see huge potential for Anatoli’s innovation to transform lives and empower communities to secure their homes, so we are delighted to award YUNGA the Africa Prize.
We believe Edmund’s innovation has the potential to help so many women who struggle to access reproductive healthcare, and are very pleased to award FlexiGyn the Africa Prize as well. We look forward to seeing the impact of both innovations in Africa in the coming years. ” Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann
Speaking as the Guest of Honour, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann, Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana said, the innovators on our continent face some unique and particularly difficult challenges.
According to her, many African innovators face constraints in accessing capital, infrastructure and technological resources and this lack of resources can affect the development and implementation of the innovative ideas.
“Africa is a continent with a diverse socioeconomic conditions. Innovators often encounter challenges reaching underserved populations. Addressing poverty and bridging the digital divide.
Posted that inconsistent policies, limited intellectual property protection, and inadequate support systems that can. That can and do impede their progress. Funding for research and development is ensure supply restricting the scope and scale of innovation last, hindering their growth potential. ”
She also noted that, capitalising on the available opportunities and addressing the challenges head on, African innovators have shown again and again the potential to drive transformative changes shape across frost future for the continent and that Africa has the advantage of leapfrogging outdated technologies and embracing innovative solutions directly.
Mobile technology and digital platforms have already demonstrated their transformative power across various sectors in Africa. The Africa Prize The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, is Africa’s biggest prize dedicated to supporting and upscaling engineering innovation and, after nine years, has a proven track record of identifying successful engineering entrepreneurs.
Since 2014, the programme has supported more than 130 entrepreneurs across 20 African countries with a rigorous business training programme and lifelong project support through the Africa Prize alumni network.
More than 70% of the alumni’s engineering and technology businesses now generate revenue. Between them, the Africa Prize alumni have raised more than USD 14 million in grants and equity funding, and created more than 3,600 jobs, almost half of them for women.
This year’s 15 shortlisted Africa Prize entrepreneurs, from 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, received eight months of training and tailored mentoring including support with developing business plans, recruitment, IP protection, financing and commercialisation.
The Africa Prize also promotes and connects the shortlisted entrepreneurs to individuals and networks around the world who can accelerate their business and provide support with technology development – from fellow entrepreneurs and mentors to potential investors and suppliers.
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