The Royal Academy of Engineering has launched its 2026 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation with a special call out to engineers and innovators in countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is the continent’s largest award dedicated to fostering engineering innovation. Its mission is to stimulate, celebrate, and reward ingenuity and entrepreneurship across sub-Saharan Africa. The 2026 Prize will award a total of £85,000, including £50,000 to the overall winner, £10,000 each to three runners-up and an additional £5,000 for the ‘One-to-Watch' award.
Since its inception in 2014, the Africa Prize has supported more than 165 businesses from 22 countries with invaluable training, mentoring, and communication resources. It also boasts a thriving alumni network with more than 70% of alumni generating revenue. Collectively, these alumni have secured £25 million in grants and equity funding.
Meredith Ettridge, Associate Director, International, at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:
“Each year, the Africa Prize attracts significant interest from across the continent. We’re proud of this reach and this year we’re aiming to cast the net even wider - particularly in countries where engineering innovation is thriving, but the Prize may not yet be as well known. Our goal is to connect with even more local entrepreneurs and help bring their ideas to life.”
Up to 16 candidates are shortlisted for the Prize each year, and they benefit from a comprehensive support package designed to accelerate their innovations. This includes an intensive eight-month training programme covering core business skills – such as financial management and market analysis – designed to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into scalable, market-ready solutions. Participants also gain access to expert mentoring in business, technology, and engineering, as well as entry into the Academy's extensive network of engineers and industry leaders across the UK and Africa.
Previous candidates for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
Applications can span a wide range of sectors. For example, this year’s 16 shortlisted candidates for the 2025 Africa Prize – now in its 11th year – were recognised for innovative solutions tackling environmental, educational, and health challenges in their communities.
A Senegalese innovator previously shortlisted in 2021 is Marie Ndieguene, whose innovation I3S, is an ecologically friendly and affordable storage space solution designed to solve the problem of post-harvest loss in agriculture. I3S is now used by more than 42,000 farmers across six communities in Senegal and since 2020 has saved 135,130 tonnes of onions and potatoes (worth over £107 million). I3S has further plans to expand to the Gambia.
An Angolan innovator previously shortlisted, Cristovão Cacombe, whose innovation Arobot, a robotics learning tool for children, modelled to resemble a three-wheeled Angolan motorbike known as the “kupapata”. Since 2021, Arobot has expanded its services to 15 cities across Angola and trained more than 7,000 students.
Shortlisted in 2022, Juveline Ngum from Cameroon is CEO of BleagLee, and is tackling environmental degradation and poor health outcomes by creating value from waste. BleagLee transforms waste management by using drones to identify disposed waste in waterways, collaborating with local collectors to retrieve materials, and processing them into valuable products like briquettes. This approach has diverted more than 4,500 tonnes of agricultural and plastic waste in 2024 alone, with operations now in seven municipalities across Cameroon and Senegal.
A previous winner from Côte d’Ivoire was Noël N'guessan, whose innovation, Kubeko, is a low-cost biowaste recycling machine designed for smallholder farmers to manage and earn additional income from their biowaste. This year, the Kubeko has been selected by Cameroon’s national waste management agency to recycle organic waste from markets and household in Yamoussoukro, turning it into fertiliser. Meanwhile, Noel has contributed to the design of a larger capacity bioreactors being deployed across cassava, shea, and palm processing operations, creating new value chains in rural communities. His company, LONO, also continues to act as a training centre for future circular economy engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs.
A Zambian innovator previously shortlisted, Muzalema Mwanza, Founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance, who developed the Baby Delivery Kit, a simple but well researched kit of tools for midwives in Zambia delivering babies in under-resourced clinics, or at home births. Safe Motherhood Alliance has recently launched the Safe Pay mobile app, improving access to healthcare by enabling users to easily pay for maternal and sexual health services – from Baby Delivery kits to contraception and sexual health kits – using mobile money.
Namibia has yet to see an entrepreneur participate in the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation - meaning applicants from the country could make history as its first shortlisted innovator.
Who can apply and how: eligibility for the Africa Prize
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is open to individuals or teams based in sub-Saharan Africa who have a scalable engineering innovation with social or environmental impact potential. Applicants must be fluent in English, with the lead applicant over 18 and a citizen ordinarily residing in a sub-Saharan African country. Innovations should be in the early stages of commercialisation and supported by a viable business plan. Hardware entries must include a working prototype and customer interest; software or app innovations must have a functional minimum viable product and evidence of traction. Required documentation includes a letter of support, technical diagram, and a photo of the innovation.
Applications for Cycle 12 of the Prize opened in July and will close in mid-September. For the first time, the Prize is introducing a two-stage application process to streamline submissions for both applicants and reviewers. Interested candidates must apply within this window to be considered for the 2026 shortlist.
Notes for editors
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The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014, is Africa’s biggest prize dedicated to developing African innovators and helping them to maximise their impact. It gives commercialisation support to ambitious African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to address local challenges, demonstrating the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development.The Africa Prize shortlist takes part in an eight-month training and mentoring programme, during which experts provided tailored, one-on-one support designed to accelerate and strengthen the businesses of each member of the shortlist. Training covers business plans, scaling, recruitment, IP protection, sector-specific engineering mentoring, communication, financing, and commercialisation. Support from the Royal Academy of Engineering connects the alumni to global networks who can accelerate their business and technology development, The Africa Prize offers lifelong support through its alumni network.
The Africa Prize has been generously supported by the UK Government, including the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Official Development Assistance funding, as well as charitable trusts and foundations, individual donors and corporate partners over the last ten years. -
The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.
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