Innovation is rising in Africa, but African innovation is not yet getting the level of global recognition and support it truly deserves. The continent is brimming with a rising crop of innovators and Entrepreneurs who are not afraid to isolate the problems in the continent and solve them.
Catalyzing the innovation spirit, encouraging and celebrating valuable innovation in the African market led to the birth of the Etisalat Prize for Innovation by Etisalat Nigeria in 2012 with winners across a product and an ideas category.
The 2016 winners of the Etisalat Prize for Innovation will be announced at Eko Hotel in Lagos today, and Techmoran will be at the venue.
The first prize of $25,000 is for the most innovative product or service launched in the previous year and a second prize of $10,000 for the most innovative idea for driving mobile broadband use in Nigeria (SME or Individual). Beyond the cash prizes, there are other value-based opportunities available to the top applicants as they journey through the Prize activities, some of them include trainings, seminars and networking opportunities.
Last week, we interviewed some of the innovators in the products category at a pitch event held at 4Points by Sheraton in Lagos. There were a total of 577 entries, cut down to a shortlist of 10.
See the list of product innovators below. You can also watch some of the short video interviews on our twitter timeline @techmoran.
Adegoke Olubusi
One Medical: OneMedical is an advanced digital health records platform designed specifically for Nigeria. It’s highly user-friendly, cloud-based and works on any device including a dedicated android app. Hospitals sign up for free and patients pay a small fee of N500 to create their file.
Ugochukwu Nwosu
GetJama: Getjama is a market data gathering solution poised to unlock real time and authentic data verified by human intelligence. We see unlocking data as the veritable tool to help organizations build business intelligence, while encouraging financial inclusion in Nigeria. Our growth plan will thrive on a balanced reward for all parties; e-workers earn for every submission, Clients get authentic information, partners earn commission for sales and businesses grow through intelligence
Samwul Datong
Recit-E-Receipt Platform: Recit (https://www.recit.com.ng) is a free invoicing platform that targets tech savvy sole entrepreneurs and small businesses. It enables them send e-receipts to their customers email addresses as a way of acknowledging a sale. The sales data supplied to send the e-receipt is also recorded to help the business keep proper records of their sales
Michael Onuorah
Nibule: Nibule is an online illustration engine, and content generation and curation platform. It enables users, content creators, and digital marketers easily and swiftly build custom illustrations to express their ideas without any prerequisite drawing skills. Illustrations created with Nibule can be sold in stickers stores like BBM Store, or shared on social media to promote ideas, products and services. They can also be printed on an array of products like greeting cards, t-shirts, phone cases etc and delivered to your doorstep.
Funke Talabi
City Hires Nigeria: City Hires is Nigeria’s Premier Video Resume Portal. It is the first video recruitment portal launched in 2015 that provides the recruiter an all in one solution; profiles of qualified candidates with resumes and also with pre-recorded video resumes reducing time wasting in sorting for the right candidate and giving job hunters the platform to audition for the role.
Ideas Category
- DressesbyAloli.
- Smart Office
- Smartguard
- FarmIntel
- Juris Court reporting software
We will be providing live updates on twitter.