20 Jan 2016

Botswana will host the fifth annual Africa Innovation Foundation’s (AIF) awards, called Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) in Gaborone in June.

This was announced by IPA director,  Ms Pauline Mujawamariya Koebl at a press conference that was held to announce details of the IPA on Wednesday January 20.

Innovation Prize for Africa is Pan-Africa’s most celebrated event of the year, which is a landmark programme of AIF, meant to increase the prosperity of Africans by catalysing the innovation spirit in Africa.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Dikagiso Mokotedi said hosting of the IPA awards themed: Made in Africa, would allow Botswana to showcase the epitome of innovation in Africa.

Mr Mokotedi also said hosting the event would have an immense impact on building a culture of innovation and re-igniting linkages between public, private and academic organisations.

“Botswana is now laying its strong future foundations in science technology and innovation through a number of key interventions including Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH),” he said.

He added that Botswana’s nomination and subsequent decision to award it the bid to host the IPA awards this year did not come as a surprise because the government had provided all the necessary foundations to enable innovation to thrive.

“We remain committed to supporting innovators to reach greater heights by facilitating development of a robust national system of innovation,” he added.

The event, he said, would allow local innovators, partners, inventors and the general public to appreciate African innovations and their funding framework while instilling and motivating the innovators.

In her host announcement remarks, Ms Mujawamariya Koebl said the IPA 2016 would offer the following prizes and incentives to winners and applicants. The grand prize will be US$100 000 (more than P1 million), second prize US$25 000 (more than P200 000), a special prize for social impact of US$25 000 (more than P200 000).

Other prizes, she said, included a voucher for each IPA nominee of US$5 000 (more than P58 000), business development support for top 10 young innovators selected post awards event and business development support for top 10 women innovators selected post awards event.

Through the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, in collaboration with BIH, the Botswana government submitted the bid to host the IPA in an effort to build the national innovation ecosystem.

The bid, which had the endorsement of President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, celebrates the IPA’s five year milestone in helping to shape the innovation landscape in Africa.

The  awards ceremony will provide an unprecedented platform for African innovators and innovation enablers to network, share knowledge, explore business opportunities and boost collaboration. To date, the IPA has attracted more than 6 000 innovators from 50 African countries in the last five years, making it a truly Pan-African initiative.

This year’s event promises to be groundbreaking, extending beyond the awards ceremony, with a theme based on the belief that Africa can establish itself on the world map through innovation, carving its own success story of growth economies and creating incentives to commercialise and scale up home-grown innovation.

The IPA call for applications ran from August to October 2015. Proposed innovations showcased African ingenuity in diverse fields such as agriculture and technologies to green energy initiatives.

The expert panel of judges’ selection criteria will be based on Africa’s new crop of ingenuity from 985 successful submissions spanning 46 African countries through a rigorous, transparent process of critique, validation, interview and consensus. BOPA