Five Nigerians shortlisted for Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

Five Nigerian innovators have been shortlisted among 11 others for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation (APEI) – the UK Royal Academy of Engineering said in a statement.

The shortlist ranges from an off-grid cold storage solution for farmers to storage and selling of fresh produce, a freelance platform, foldable photo-therapy cribs that treat jaundice in newborns, among others.

The Africa Prize is run by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering and awards crucial commercialisation support to African innovators who are tackling local challenges with scalable engineering solutions.

The Africa Prize has a track record of identifying engineering entrepreneurs with significant potential, many of whom have gone on to achieve greater commercial success and social impact.

An alumni network of more than 102 social entrepreneurs across Africa is projected to impact over three million lives in the next five years. They have already created more than 1500 jobs and raised more than $14 million in grants and equity. The five Africans are:

Adekoyejo Kuye, Coldbox Store

Coldbox Store is a solar-powered, walk-in refrigeration solution and distribution centre for fruit, vegetable, and meat products sold by farmers in rural and under-served communities with poor electricity infrastructure. Kuye, a clean energy specialist, co-created the Coldbox Store to help farmers in Enugu, Nigeria, where their first installation is already in use in a local market.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest food security in the world despite an estimated 60 percent of its population being farmers. Food waste is a major challenge, with as much as 45 percent losses recorded, largely due to unreliable cold chains.

To run on an entirely off-grid system, Coldbox Store was designed to be extremely efficient. Temperatures are adjustable, digital sensors reduce power consumption rates, insulation prevents energy loss and variable speed compressors adjust to the cooling needs in the room at any given time.

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Femi Taiwo, TERAWORK

TERAWORK is a freelance platform that helps business owners safely outsource key skills as and when needed. Taiwo and his team developed the online system after a bad experience with a freelancer who didn’t deliver what was promised.

The TERAWORK platform lets users commission, brief, manage and pay freelancers working in a variety of fields – from software development to accounting, marketing, writing, design and more.

This allows businesses to hire part-time skills that are not part of their core service or product, giving the business financial flexibility when it’s still growing.

It also increases the field of available talent by allowing customers to work across large distances, an increasingly popular option as remote working becomes more accepted.

For freelancers, the platform provides a more secure method for selling services, with all users vetted before being uploaded, and payment from commissioning customer to freelancer ensured once all parties are satisfied with the work done.

Mariam Eluma, HoBeei

HoBeei is a free-cycle platform where users get virtual currency in exchange for their used and unwanted items. Using what they’ve earned, they can then bid on other goods listed on HoBeei that they do need.

HoBeei users bid for items with a virtual currency called Buzzes, which they get by uploading items of their own, inviting friends to the platform, sharing HoBeei on social media, or by purchasing bundles of Buzzes for cash.

Eluma and her team collect all items to be uploaded from users directly, and new purchases are delivered to successful bidders. The team has seen the use of Buzzes incentivising users to bid on items they would not usually be able to afford.

HoBeei was designed especially for people who will always need new items, like parents providing for growing children. On the platform, they can upload clothes and toys their kids have outgrown, and use the Buzzes received to replace them with more age-appropriate items.

Students needing new furniture and stationery can free-cycle them when their studies are over, helping new students access more affordable or even free products when it’s their turn starting.

Oluwatobi Oyinlola, SolarPocha

SolarPocha is a solar-powered outdoor workstation where students and professionals can connect to both electricity and the internet and work comfortably outdoors. The idea came out of a creative group challenge, which Oyinlola later decided to bring to life in Nigeria. After further development, Oyinlola installed the first unit at his old university for students to use.

The workstation can be installed anywhere, giving people the opportunity to work in a variety of settings without needing near-grid electricity or internet connections. They are ideal for schools, universities, parks and even restaurants.

The SolarPocha accommodates wheelchair users and has enough room for all eight people with their laptops. Oyinlola also developed an online booking system so that users can reserve a spot at the table for as long as they need, promoting more time outdoors and making it easy to use. Maintenance on the system is minimal, and the internet is bought in bulk, with both funded by the booking fee paid by users.

Virtue Oboro, Crib A-Glow

Crib A’glow is a foldable, photo-therapy crib that treats and monitors jaundiced newborns. Oboro and her husband began work on the idea after their son was severely jaundiced after birth, and have since grown the team to include engineers, designers and paediatricians.

Jaundice occurs in newborns when bilirubin – a natural substance made when red blood cells disintegrate – is abnormally high. It’s extremely common, with more than half of newborns suffering from jaundice to some degree. It can be fatal, and can also cause brain damage, cerebral palsy and hearing loss.

Devices used to treat jaundiced newborns are typically expensive, and highly sensitive to electricity fluctuations or outages. As a result, more than 6 million infants worldwide do not receive appropriate treatment, with around 100,000 deaths recorded annually and many more suffering permanent injury.

Driven by the co-founders’ personal experience with their son, Oboro and her team worked to fill this gap in inappropriate healthcare technology, creating a phototherapy crib that is specifically designed for under-resourced medical facilities that don’t have access to stable electricity supply.