A South African entrepreneur who designed a smart locker system that increases access to healthcare has won a major award in African engineering.
Neo Hutiri is the creator of Pelebox, a system of internet-enabled lockers that dispenses medications for chronic conditions to patients, helping to reduce queues and relieve pressure on hospital resources. He was awarded £50,000 ($63,000) by Britain’s Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as being honored by King George III during a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening. He was given a medal presented by Charles’ sister, Princess Anne.
The event marked the 10th anniversary of the Academy’s prestigious African Engineering Innovation Award, which recognizes entrepreneurs who develop technology to tackle local challenges on the continent, from improving access to power to adapting to climate change.
For the anniversary, the Academy organized a special version of the annual competition dedicated to its graduates. It shortlisted 12 innovations from six countries that have participated in the training program over the last decade, and following a presentation session at yesterday’s event, a panel of six judges selected the winner. The regular iteration of the Africa Prize will also go ahead in June, with four finalists competing for the £25,000 ($31,600) prize.
Hutiri first won the Africa Prize for her cabinets in 2019, when she was running a pilot program for the Pelebox concept. The initiative has since expanded significantly and the innovation is now used in 123 healthcare facilities in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.
“Winning the Africa award helped open a lot of doors, gave us good recognition, turned a lot of ‘no’s into ‘yes’ and finally gave us the audience we were looking for,” he tells CNN. He hopes the 2024 prize money will help “catalyze” the company’s growth.
“We want to see Pelebox operate in six countries and this award will enable us to build the right team, develop our product and continue to reach and create value for patients who spend hours in clinics across South Africa,” he said. says.
“Incredible solutions”
Missing out on the anniversary medal were two runners-up, who each received £15,000 ($19,000): Nigerian entrepreneur Aisha Raheem with Farmz2U, a digital platform that prevents food waste by helping farms plan their crops, and Samuel Njuguna from Kenya. Chura Limited aims to overcome poor mobile signal with a web-based, multi-network system that allows users to switch between SIM cards regardless of operator.
In total, the academy will invest more than £1 million ($1.2 million) in African Prize graduates this year through grants, awards and accelerator programmes.
The aim is to help scale up engineering innovations and maximize their impact, according to Cameroonian tech entrepreneur and awards judge Rebecca Enonchong. This is also an opportunity to showcase African talent to the rest of the world.
“There is not enough funding for African startups,” he told CNN. “As we saw with the Africa Prize, we do not want all the funding to come in the form of grants. We want investors to believe that they can also make money by investing in African startups. But sometimes an Africa Prize really becomes necessary to give investors the visibility they need to attract investment so that they know these startups exist.
Since its founding in 2014, the African Engineering Innovation Award has supported more than 140 entrepreneurs from 23 African countries with business training programs as well as engineering consultancy, communications support and pitch opportunities. The academy says graduates of the award have collectively secured more than $39 million in funding and introduced more than 470 products and services to the global market.
For Enonchong, it is vital that the award represents entrepreneurs from all over the continent. “If you look at the innovation landscape on the African continent, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria (and) Egypt are getting the most funding and the most traction for founders overall. This isn’t necessarily where all innovation comes from. “It just means they have stronger, larger, more developed ecosystems.”
“Being able to showcase talent from across the continent is critical for us because even in small towns and villages across the continent there are innovators and people developing incredible solutions,” he adds.
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