16 African Engineering Innovations Compete for 2026 Africa Prize

Last Updated 55 mins ago by Kenya Engineer

Sixteen innovators from 11 African countries are showcasing engineering solutions to challenges ranging from access to essential healthcare and reliable electricity to water scarcity, agricultural productivity and waste management as the 2026 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation approaches its final stage.

Organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the competition supports entrepreneurs developing technologies and engineering-based businesses with the potential to address local challenges and expand into new markets. The 2026 cohort includes innovators from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. raeng.org.uk

The competition’s final is scheduled for 28 October 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where four finalists will present their innovations to a panel of judges. The winner will receive £50,000, while each of the three runners-up will receive £10,000. An additional £5,000 One-to-Watch award will be determined by the audience. africaprize.raeng.org.uk

The range of technologies represented in this year’s cohort reflects the diversity of engineering challenges facing African economies. Some innovations focus on adapting established technologies to infrastructure-constrained environments, while others use artificial intelligence, digital platforms and resource recovery to develop new approaches to service delivery.

Healthcare innovations target gaps in access and infrastructure

Healthcare is one of the strongest themes in the 2026 shortlist, with innovators addressing the cost of specialist treatment, shortages of medical equipment and the difficulty of delivering reliable services outside major hospitals.

Among the four finalists is Kenyan medical doctor Alice Muhuhu, whose MoyoECG combines wearable electrocardiography with artificial intelligence to support cardiac screening in low-resource healthcare settings.

The device is designed to enable rural clinics to conduct cardiac assessments without depending on continuous internet connectivity or mains electricity. By making ECG screening more accessible, the technology aims to support earlier identification of heart conditions and improve referral decisions. Its development also illustrates how medical engineering can be adapted to the operating conditions of facilities that lack the resources of large hospitals. highereducation.raeng.org.uk

Another Kenyan finalist, Naom Monari, developed Renal Roads, a mobile dialysis unit intended to bring kidney treatment closer to patients in underserved communities.

Dialysis patients often require repeated treatments, making distance and transport costs significant barriers to continued care. Renal Roads seeks to address this problem by taking treatment facilities to communities rather than requiring every patient to travel to a central hospital. Its model brings together medical equipment and the supporting infrastructure needed to operate a mobile treatment service. highereducation.raeng.org.uk

From Niger, Mamane Kabirou Ousseini’s Likita Care addresses the availability and maintenance of medical monitoring equipment.

The locally manufactured platform combines devices for vital-sign measurement, cardiac assessment and prenatal monitoring with clinical software and offline artificial intelligence. Its dashboard is designed to help healthcare workers monitor several patients, interpret readings and apply digital clinical protocols.

The system is also intended to reduce dependence on imported equipment by enabling local production and maintenance. According to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the team has conducted clinical testing involving more than 100 patients and collected over 4,000 data points, with more than 70 monitoring units produced and deployed in Niger. highereducation.raeng.org.uk

The fourth innovation in this broader healthcare-related field is DawaMom, developed by Tafadzwa Kalisto Munzwa in Zambia. The artificial intelligence-enabled maternal and reproductive health platform provides guidance in local languages and is designed to support diagnostic assessment, triage and referrals through community and clinic-based care.

Its approach combines digital health information with links to healthcare services, targeting women who may face barriers to accessing timely and reliable advice.

Nigeria’s Derick Nwasor is approaching healthcare infrastructure from a different engineering direction through Just Add Water, a regenerative fuel-cell technology optimised using quantum computing and artificial intelligence. The system is intended to provide clean electricity and medical-grade oxygen to healthcare facilities, potentially reducing reliance on fossil-fuel-based power and external oxygen deliveries. Its wider significance will depend on the technology’s performance, cost and ability to operate reliably in clinical settings. raeng.org.uk

Renewable energy and water technologies address basic infrastructure needs

Reliable electricity and safe water remain closely linked to the performance of other essential services, from healthcare and education to agriculture and small-scale industry. Several shortlisted innovations seek to improve access through decentralised systems.

Ghanaian innovator Johannes Amo-Aye has developed the Fusion Wind Turbine, a hybrid wind and solar power system designed for communities with limited access to reliable electricity.

The system combines a gearless vertical-axis wind turbine with a solar structure to create a modular microgrid. Its design emphasises local repairability, with the aim of providing a dependable source of electricity to underserved communities and facilities such as health centres while reducing reliance on diesel generators. The combination of two renewable energy sources could help address variations in the availability of wind and sunlight, although actual performance will depend on local conditions and system design. africaprize.raeng.org.uk

In Tanzania, Faith Kuya’s WaterBank applies a decentralised utility model to water supply.

The solar-powered system filters and desalinates water, while artificial intelligence is used to anticipate maintenance needs and reduce the risk of equipment failure. Prepaid radio-frequency identification cards provide a cashless method of accessing water.

The approach is intended to make water services available in off-grid communities without depending entirely on conventional utility infrastructure. Its long-term viability will depend on factors including water source quality, treatment costs, maintenance capacity and the affordability of the service.

Malawi’s Tadala Mtimuni has developed MalawiDrop, a refillable household water-treatment device designed to provide safe drinking water at the point of use.

The system targets rural communities where conventional water-treatment infrastructure may be unavailable and where household treatment can be difficult to administer consistently. Its design seeks to simplify the treatment process, reducing the need for complicated manual dosing.

South Africa’s Dyllon Randall, another finalist, is addressing both water conservation and agricultural inputs through Pee-Cycling. The technology processes human urine to recover nutrients for liquid fertiliser while producing reusable water.

The concept offers a different way of looking at sanitation: rather than treating human waste solely as a disposal problem, it seeks to recover useful resources. By recovering nutrients that can be used in agriculture, the system could also reduce dependence on imported fertilisers. The Royal Academy identifies Pee-Cycling as one of the four finalists for the 2026 prize. highereducation.raeng.org.uk

Agricultural technologies focus on water efficiency and soil health

Agriculture features prominently in the shortlist, with innovations aimed at helping farmers manage scarce resources, improve soil conditions and overcome barriers to finance and markets.

Kenyan innovator Royford Mutegi’s Automated Vermicomposting Device converts food waste into fertiliser pellets using a solar-powered system.

Vermicomposting uses earthworms and biological processes to break down organic material into nutrient-rich products. Mutegi’s innovation seeks to automate parts of this process and produce pest-resistant fertiliser pellets that can help smallholder farmers improve soil fertility.

The technology also creates a potential link between waste management and agricultural production by turning organic waste into a useful farm input. Its wider adoption could depend on production costs, the availability of suitable feedstock, product quality and farmers’ ability to access the resulting fertiliser.

In Lesotho, Mochesane Mpali has developed Farmflex, an artificial intelligence-enabled agricultural platform designed to help smallholder farmers use water more efficiently and manage production risks.

Beyond farm management, the platform aims to help farmers establish digital records that can support access to credit, insurance and markets. This addresses a longstanding challenge in smallholder agriculture: farmers may have viable production activities but lack the documented information lenders and insurers need to assess their businesses.

Farmflex’s approach connects agricultural technology with financial inclusion, although the benefits will depend on whether farmers can use the platform effectively and whether financial institutions accept the resulting records.

Together, the two innovations demonstrate different ways engineering can support agricultural productivity. One focuses on converting organic waste into a farm input, while the other uses digital tools to improve farm management and access to commercial services. raeng.org.uk

Digital platforms target education and public transport

Other innovators are using software and artificial intelligence to address gaps in education and urban mobility, with particular attention to cost, connectivity and the limitations of existing services.

Nigerian entrepreneur Chidi Nwaogu has developed Efiwe, a mobile-first coding education platform that works offline on basic smartphones.

The platform enables learners to study web development with artificial intelligence support and offers learning assistance in 189 languages. Its offline capability is particularly relevant in communities where internet access is unreliable or expensive, while support for multiple languages is intended to broaden participation in digital skills training.

The innovation targets the entry barriers that prevent many young people from accessing conventional coding courses, which often assume reliable connectivity, suitable computers and a degree of proficiency in widely used international languages.

In Senegal, Moustapha Diop’s Jangalma uses artificial intelligence to provide personalised learning and tutoring for secondary-school students across Francophone Africa.

The platform seeks to make additional educational support more affordable and accessible, regardless of a learner’s location or income. Its success will depend on the quality of its educational content, the reliability of its recommendations and its ability to complement, rather than replace, classroom teaching.

Rwanda’s Millicent Kariuki has developed HarakaPlus, a smart mobility platform that combines live bus-location information with passenger-demand data.

The platform is designed to help commuters obtain better information about public transport while giving operators information that can support service planning. Reliable information about vehicle locations and demand can help passengers plan journeys and give operators a clearer picture of how services are being used.

However, improvements in public transport reliability also require effective operations, adequate vehicle capacity and coordination among operators. Digital information is one part of that wider system.

South Africa’s LabZero, developed by Sincengile Ntshingila, applies digital simulation to biomedical education. The virtual tissue-culture laboratory allows students to practise procedures involved in growing and maintaining cells through a digital platform.

Practical laboratory training can be expensive and constrained by the availability of equipment, consumables and specialised facilities. By providing a virtual environment for practice, LabZero seeks to widen access to biomedical training while reducing contamination risks and plastic waste associated with laboratory activities.

The technology does not remove the need for physical laboratory experience, but it offers a way to prepare students before they work with actual biological materials. raeng.org.uk

Waste management becomes a platform for resource recovery

Waste management and resource recovery form another important part of the shortlist, linking environmental concerns with opportunities for new businesses and services.

Tanzanian innovator Allen Kimambo’s Zaidi App combines waste-management services with financial technology.

The platform is designed to help cities digitise waste collection, formalise the work of informal recycling operators and connect waste workers and contractors to financial services. Informal collectors play an important role in recovering recyclable materials in many African cities, but their work can take place outside formal systems for payments, contracts and financial records.

By digitising transactions and service relationships, Zaidi App aims to make parts of the waste value chain more visible and commercially organised.

The platform’s potential impact will depend on the participation of collectors, contractors and local authorities, as well as whether the digital records translate into better working conditions and access to finance.

Randall’s Pee-Cycling technology approaches resource recovery through sanitation, while Mutegi’s automated vermicomposting system converts organic waste into agricultural inputs. Together, these innovations illustrate how materials traditionally treated as waste can become feedstock for new products and services.

Such approaches require careful attention to processing standards, health and environmental safeguards, product quality and the economics of collection and treatment. Resource recovery becomes commercially sustainable only when the resulting products can be produced safely and find reliable markets. raeng.org.uk

Four finalists prepare for the Johannesburg final

Four of the 16 innovators have been selected to compete for the main Africa Prize award.

Muhuhu’s MoyoECG and Monari’s Renal Roads represent Kenya in the final, alongside Ousseini’s Likita Care from Niger and Randall’s Pee-Cycling from South Africa.

Their selection brings together four markedly different applications of engineering: portable cardiac screening, mobile kidney treatment, locally manufactured medical monitoring and the recovery of water and nutrients from human waste.

The finalists will pitch their innovations to a panel of judges at the Johannesburg event. The winner will receive £50,000, while each of the three runners-up will receive £10,000. The audience will also select a One-to-Watch winner, who will receive £5,000. highereducation.raeng.org.uk

The prize is structured to support more than the development of a technical prototype. The Royal Academy of Engineering’s programme provides shortlisted entrepreneurs with eight months of training, mentoring and networking intended to help them develop their innovations into scalable businesses.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Africa Prize has supported engineering businesses across the continent. The Academy reports that its programme has supported 165 businesses from 22 countries, with those businesses employing more than 40,000 people and benefiting more than 11 million people through their products and services. raeng.org.uk

Turning engineering ideas into scalable businesses

The 2026 shortlist illustrates the range of problems African innovators are seeking to solve, but the development of a promising technology is only one stage in bringing a solution to market.

Medical devices must demonstrate safety and reliability. Water-treatment systems require dependable maintenance and quality control. Renewable energy technologies must compete on cost and performance, while agricultural products need consistent quality and distribution. Digital platforms must establish user trust and demonstrate that they improve on existing services.

For many innovators, the next challenge is moving from a working product or early deployment to a business capable of reaching more users without compromising performance or affordability.

That process may require local manufacturing, supply chains for replacement components, partnerships with public agencies, regulatory approvals and access to patient capital. It may also involve adapting designs to different operating environments rather than assuming that a solution proven in one location will work identically elsewhere.

The Africa Prize provides a platform for entrepreneurs to develop both the technical and commercial aspects of their ventures. Its longer-term significance will be measured not only by the innovations that win awards, but also by the extent to which participating businesses secure customers, sustain their operations and expand access to useful technologies.

The four finalists will take the spotlight in Johannesburg on 28 October. Across the wider cohort, however, the 16 innovations offer a broader view of African engineering entrepreneurship: one that connects practical technical solutions with the demands of healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture, education and environmental management.

Source: Royal Academy of Engineering, 2026 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation shortlist and finalists’ announcements.