Kigali Hosts Gathering of Africa’s Top Tech Leaders

Techies and nerds across Africa descended on Kigali, Rwanda today as the third annual Africa Tech Summit kicks off with over 150 expert speakers and 600 delegates at the Kigali Convention Centre, Rwanda. The event which is a two-day Africa Startup Summit showcases Africa’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The event which features a triple sub-events coalesced into one has  – the Future Summit, the Africa Startup Summit and the Money and Blockchain Summit  – all aimed at connecting African corporates, startups, investors and international delegations sharing insights from industry leaders including Microsoft, ENGIE Africa, GE Africa, Facebook, Bolt, Coca-Cola, Unilever, IFC, Stanbic, Ecobank, Decred, Binance and many more announced.

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The Future Summit provides expert insights of emerging technologies, solutions and opportunities across the African mobile, digital and tech landscapes; while the Africa Startup Summit will connect investors and ventures through engaging panels, pitching sessions and deal rooms. Finally, the Money and Blockchain Summit will deliver discussion and networking with fintech leaders, mobile operators and blockchain innovators from across the continent.

The Pitch Live contest returns to the startup stage again this year, with eleven companies from across the continent selected to pitch on stage to investors, corporates, media and other stakeholders.

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Meanwhile, five African startups with solutions in the credit scoring space were selected to pitch at the ENGIE Challenge, for the chance to secure a testing phase for their solutions with French utility company ENGIE. The Eleven companies from across the continent selected to pitch on stage to investors, corporates, media and other stakeholders at the Summit will focus on encouraging collaboration, and creating connections between investors, corporates, stakeholders and startups.

The selected for pitching was through applications which opened late last year more than 100 applications received from startups across the continent for the opportunity to take part. It was then narrowed down to the chosen 11, hailing from six African countries and active in sectors such as ed-tech, fintech, prop-tech, agri-tech, recruitment and waste management. The eleven are BAG Innovation (Rwanda): a digital platform that combines AI and gamification to simulate virtual internships and bridge the gap between the Academic and Business sectors; OkwuEco (Nigeria): a marketplace that helps users to buy, sell, trade or recycle their solid waste from anywhere, without payment, language or location barriers; M-Lugha App (Kenya) which translates the Kenyan school syllabus into indigenous languages for rural, nomadic and pastoral communities, improving quality of education and HouseAfrica (Nigeria) which uses blockchain technology to digitise land ownership verification for banks and mortgage companies, increasing access to loans for home buyers.

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Others are MarketForce (Kenya) which connects Africa’s informal retail shops directly to suppliers of consumer goods and financial services.The Awareness Company (South Africa) which  uses data-driven storytelling to help organisations make sense of multiple sources of information from people, sensors and systems to get a clear picture and make quick and effective decisions and Limestart (Nigeria) which boosts financial inclusion for unbanked small businesses in Africa’s informal sector by helping them digitise transaction records and collect flexible digital payments;

The remaining four are M-omulimisa (Uganda), a virtual online consultation platform for smallholder farmers, also offering agro insurance services. Talents Arena (Egypt) an online recruitment platform that helps growing companies finds the ideal tech talent matching their needs. ThankUCash (Nigeria) which provides infrastructure for rewards and loyalty for banks and businesses across Africa and Riby (Nigeria) which helps communities, cooperatives and trade groups digitise their operations and get access to financial services through its digital platforms and offline channels.

Organisers explained that settling for these eleven was a very tough task as they were blown away by the array of exciting and impactful startups competing to come to Africa Startup Summit this year.

 

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry