23 Jun 2016

More than 500 people from Africa and Europe have converged in Gaborone for the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) awards.

The premier innovation event aimed at celebrating Africa’s ingenuity is now on its fifth edition.

Officiating at the event on June 22, the Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Nonofo Molefhi said it was through hosting the IPA awards ‘that we hope to encourage local innovators to be relevant to Africa level innovation efforts and to be part of them”. 

Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) science and technology park, Mr Molefhi said, was the ideal place for the IPA 2016 as it provided a platform for networking and sharing ideas on innovation- with the view to stimulate new innovations and conceptualise on how they could be made to reach the market.

“We are well aware that by providing such interactive sessions we are bringing real value to innovators. I sincerely hope that some of the innovators awarded prizes this year, in the past years and in the future will eventually find BIH Science and Technology Park as a place for true creativity and commercialisation of their innovations,” he said.

Whilst in Botswana, Mr Molefhi said it was appropriate and ideal that innovators familiarised themselves with the BIH science and technology park and what it could offer and reserve space, now, whilst space was still available, ‘because we are about to open doors to investors as soon as the iconic building is complete.’

Through the park, he said government had provided a process of incubating early stage innovations, providing; business coaching, mentoring and technical support.

“We have also made provisions for advisory services in intellectual property and copy right to innovators and the public at large,” he added.

He wished success, beyond the event, to those nominated for the IPA 2016 awards and encouraged those aspiring to become nominees in the next awards to persevere and double their efforts ‘for there are rewards for innovations that address societal challenges.’  

The IPA selection process or criteria involved rigorous steps that looked at the innovations’ originality, marketability, scalability, social impact and scientific or technical aspects.

Through the Ministry of Infrastructur,e Science and Technology in collaboration with BIH, Botswana government submitted the 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.

To date, IPA had 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 extended beyond the awards ceremony- with a theme based on the belief that Africa can posit itself on the world map through self-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 was based on Africa’s new crop of ingenuity from 985 successful submissions spanning 46 African countries. ENDS