The Nigerian tech firm Okra has been named among top 100 Tech Pioneers by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Okra was listed among other African tech firms such as Rwanda’s Ampersand and three tech firms from Kenya, namely Sendy, Access Afya and Pula Advisors.
Sendy is featured for its role in building fulfillment infrastructure for e-commerce and consumer brands while Access Afya has been recognised for offering high-quality healthcare for the global mass market
On the other side, Pula Advisors was recognised for its innovation and impact in using technology to provide agriculture insurance to millions of smallholder farmers in emerging markets.
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“Farmers in emerging markets are the most hardworking citizens of the world yet the most likely to already feel the impact of climate change. They need products like agriculture insurance and digital agronomy advice to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate,” Pula CEO Thomas Njeru said.
Technology Pioneers are selected based on the WEF community’s selection criteria which consider innovation, leadership, and relevance to the global organisation’s platforms.
Pula, at the moment, has influence in 16 countries and has listed about 6 million smallholder farmers.
The selected firms will participate in WEF events to drive panel discussions on key industry and societal issues throughout the year.
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“We are honoured to be recognised by the World Economic Forum as a technology pioneer. This recognition affirms our belief that the digital economy in Africa presents the biggest opportunity for young people to participate in the economy,” said Sendy founder and CEO Mesh Alloys.
Some of the companies that have been honoured by Technology Pioneer in the past include giant tech companies like Google, Airbnb, Mozilla, Spotify, Scribd, Kaggle, Kickstarter, Palantir Technologies, and Twitter.
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Technology Pioneer was launched in 2000 for growing companies around the globe that are involved in the design and development of new technologies and innovations.
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