From Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, seven African initiatives have won the 2018 World Summit Awards, recognized for their digital innovation and social impact.
The World Summit Awards (WSA) was founded in 2003 by Austria as part of the UN World Summit on Information Society as a global initiative to award local digital content with high social value and presents it worldwide.
Most remarkable and inspiring is the diversity of innovative approaches that these African initiatives have taken to solve challenges and often-unique situations in their communities and countries.
- Sokowatch (Kenya) – Daniel Yu: Sokowatch is an e-commerce startup connecting manufacturers directly with small retail shops in urban Africa through SMS and Android app ordering systems. More than 10 million informal shops sell over $180 billion of goods every year, yet they routinely run out of products, lacking financial services and proper management tools. Sokowatch benefits shop owners by eliminating costs and down time. Its beautifully integrated system and nice functionality currently supplies over 3500 stores across East Africa.
- Carrot (Nigeria) – Luqman Balogun & Odunayo Williams: Carrot is a one-stop estate planning solution for individuals to securely create, update and schedule execution of wills and or other testamentary instruments such as: deed of gifts, living wills, trusts, guardianship, etc. anytime, anywhere on their digital devices. Carrot uses OTP authorization and biometric authentication to validate a subscriber or grant access to any instrument created on the platform, eliminating disputes between next of kin and other beneficiaries, while simplifying family estate planning.
- Afrocomix (Ghana) – Eyram Tawia & Wesley Kirinya: Afrocomix is a content hub for creative work made by Africans on the continent, providing a one-stop shop for people everywhere who love African art. Afrocomix focuses on monetization, while addressing fragmentation in African creative industries. Afrocomix gives content creators a platform to display their work with a simple upload, including comics, graphic novels, animation and wallpapers, and to earn 70% of the net revenue generated. A mobile money solution supports users without access to online payment systems.
- Kuza One (Kenya) – Sriram Bharatam & Bharathi Bharatam: 78% of the 570 million farms around the world are classified as smallholder farms. Kuza One is a platform and program offering agri-business mentorship and quality information, credit & marketing to these farmers. A member of the rural community is chosen to become an “agri-entrepreneur” serving 200 farmers with packages of practices and agri-extension services via the portable digital kit. The multi-facetted digital platform provides access to crop advisories, inputs, credit & market info on demand.
- IremboGov (Rwanda) – Faith Keza: IremboGov is an eGovernment platform providing access to government services in Rwanda. It hosts over eighty-six services from eighteen government agencies with over 150,000 transactions a month. IremboGov also harnesses existing infrastructure (telcos, human resources, payment gateways etc.), increasing access points and field agents, as well as the overall user rate. Accessing services is simpler, faster and cheaper for Rwandan citizens, while government provides services more effectively and transparently.
- M-Shule (Kenya) – M-Shule: M-Shule is the first adaptive, mobile learning platform in Africa connecting primary school students to personalized education. Meaning “mobile school” in Swahili, M-Shule’s platform uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalized learning support in math and English via SMS and chatbots, building students’ concept mastery, exam performance, and confidence. M-Shule then shares data and insights with parents, schools, and organizations to power better instruction and collaboration, delivering high quality learning for each child.
- MaxOkada (Nigeria) – Adetayo Bamiduro & Chinedu Azodoh: MAXOkada mobile and web applications provide safe, affordable and accessible moto-taxis to underserved communities in Africa, using inclusive asset-finance and safety hardware. The end-to-end platform connects drivers to commuters and businesses in real time to fulfil goods delivery and get people to their destinations. By licensing and creating credit ratings for drivers, and providing safe and affordable moto-taxi service for commuters and enterprises using their mobile devices, MAXOkada is transforming transportation in Africa.
These African winners and the other global winners will be featured at the World Summit Awards (WSA) Global Congress in Cascais, Portugal, holding from 11 – 13 March, 2019. Through close cooperation with the United Nations agencies and strategic alignment with the UN SDGs, the WSA is a globally recognized quality seal for digital innovation.