11 Apr 2016

The fifth annual Africa Innovation Foundation‘s (AIF) most prestigious awards, the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), will be held in Gaborone on June 22 to 23, 2016.

This was officially announced by the Botswana Innovation Hub chief executive officer, Mr Allan Boshwaen at an IPA stakeholders breakfast meeting held to announce the official date for the awards ceremony .

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

The bid, which had the endorsement of President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama, celebrates IPA’s five year milestone in helping to shape the innovation landscape in Africa.  After going through a competitive bidding process, Botswana was chosen the host of Pan-Africa’s most celebrated event of the year.

The AIF landmark programme is meant to increase the prosperity of Africans by catalysing the innovation spirit in Africa. Mr Boshwaen said government made it possible to host the IPA awards which are themed: Made in Africa, as it has provided all the necessary foundations to enable innovation to thrive in Botswana.

He said the awards would afford Botswana an opportunity to showcase the epitome of innovation in Africa. He added that the event would allow local innovators, partners, inventors and the general public to appreciate Africa level innovations and their funding framework, whilst instilling and motivating the innovators.

In her IPA briefing remarks, IPA director Ms Pauline Mujawamariya Koelbl said the awards ceremony gala dinner would be held at the Gaborone International Conference Centre on June 23 and would be preceded by a press conference, meetings with IPA 2016 nominees and platforms to allow collaboration or connections on June 22.

She said the event would provide an unprecedented platform for African innovators and innovation enablers to network, share knowledge, explore business opportunities and boost collaboration.

IPA 2016 would offer the following prizes and incentives to winners and applicants; grand prize of US$100 000 (more than P1 million), second prize of US$25 000 (more than P200 000), special prize for social impact of 25 000 (more than P200 000).

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

Additionally, she said an incentive for women has also been added to encourage them to apply in large numbers, as they realised that they were not applying. She said the incentive would benefit ten women with innovative programmes that have the potential to make it in the market.

“Ingenuity has no borders, ingenuity is everywhere. So I want more women innovators to apply, because when women innovate they innovate for the family, community and continent. The more women innovators we have, the more we will be able to solve more challenges in Africa,” she said.

The IPA director explained that the selection criteria involves very rigorous steps that look at the innovation’s originality, marketability, scalability, social impact and scientific or technical aspects.

She said to date 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 ground breaking, extending beyond the awards ceremony with a theme based on the belief that Africa can posit 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. ENDS