Microsoft announces Team Green Wavers as the winner of this year’s Game of Learners (GoL) university students hackathon competition. They won the climate change and sustainability-themed hackathon competition with a solution that encourages the public to plant trees. Team Wavers will have the privilege of working with the Green Belt Movement to develop their winning solution further.
Purity Jangaya (University of Nairobi), Ian Kariuki (Kenyatta University), Humphrey Kimathi (Kirinyaga University), Jessie Umuhire (African Leadership University) and Françoise Mukantwari (African Leadership University) make up the winning team, Green Wavers. The team got coaching support from Microsoft Africa Development Center’s Claire Limo (Software Engineer) and Loki Mutua (Product Manager).
The 5-week virtual hackathon’s objective was to propose solutions that reduce or reverse gas emissions and footprints, based on the theme Climate Change & Sustainability. Season 3 saw 40 students from universities in Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, and Uganda participating. It also had 21 judges from the Green Belt Movement, Kenya Climate Innovation Centre, UNICEF, the USIU, and the Microsoft ADC. In addition, there were 17 coaches and 16 trainers.
Green Wavers – Climate change solution
Based on the critical theme of Climate Change & Sustainability, the team created a tree planting competition website to encourage tree planting in line with the season’s challenge, which sought to propose a solution that reduces or reverses gas emissions and footprints.
The solution works in such a way that once a user has planted a tree and photographs it, the website allows the user to register and upload the image. Azure Computer Vision recognizes the uploaded image and confirms that the object in the image is a tree. If validation is successful, the database is updated with the user’s name, location, and tree image URL. If the user uploads another image and it is validated, the user’s tree count in the database grows.
If the validation fails, the user is prompted to upload a new image. After a month, the user with the most trees planted receives an award. The website also includes an education page where users can learn about the importance of planting trees, the consequences of cutting down trees, and how to plant a tree.
Carbon dioxide is thought to be responsible for 80% of global warming. Furthermore, it is estimated that the world emits approximately 43 billion tonnes of CO2 per year.
“Trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis and release pure oxygen into the environment. Therefore, planting trees equates to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment. However, the number of trees being planted is far less than the number of trees being cut down. For one tree that is planted, three trees are cut down,” said Jangaya, the Green Wavers team captain.
“This is the problem that we identified, and the challenge is how we can make people plant more trees than those which are being destroyed. As team Wavers, we have found a solution and have developed a website that makes people plant trees.”
Microsoft Game of Learners
Speaking about the competition, the Game of Learners founder, Ruth Ferland said: “The focus of GOL is in fostering and encouraging continuous learning. It’s not about winning a prize but rather learning hands-on as much as possible in 5 weeks. Prizes and incentives are based on items that promote and assist learning including smartphones, Azure Credits, LinkedIn Learning Vouchers and MS Certification Vouchers.”
The participants’ journey is documented and released online as a weekly episode on the GOL Show with the finale having aired this week and can be found on the Game of Learners website. Volunteers support all GOL activities from Microsoft and partners as coaches, mentors, judges, speakers, and trainers.
Taking part in the Game of Learners competition is a winning experience for all participants considering the amount of learning that each participant is exposed to. The winning team gets an opportunity to have their winning solution adopted by an organization to develop it further.
“Another winning experience for Game of Learners participants is having the experience elevate them to become suitable candidates for various tech roles in the industry. From the previous Game of Learners seasons, we have seen a conversion rate of about 40% of our participants gaining meaningful employment with reputable companies, including Microsoft” Catherine Muraga, the ADC Managing Director emphasized.
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Sell harvest, an agritech solution by Team Software Chasers emerges winner of the first Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon in Nigeria. The team wins two and a half million Naira as prize money, mentorship and technical support from Microsoft. It will also join the Microsoft Global Social Entrepreneurship program to develop into a unicorn.
Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon NG is an initiative of the Microsoft African Transformation Office (ATO) in partnership with Sterling Bank, Ted Prime Hub and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). To identify and develop sustainable and inclusive digital solutions for agro-products and services in Nigeria.
Microsoft says seventy thousand Nigerians applied to participate in the hackathon. With two thousand being shortlisted for the first phase of the hackathon. Which was then filtered down to fifty and then thirty teams. The teams went through virtual skill-up sessions on technology and cloud services, emerging issues on agricultural value chain process, start-up ecosystem and idea scaling and product testing.
The final event featured 10 solutions by teams from Abuja, Benue, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto states competing for the top three positions. Farmsquare came in second winning N1.5million while third place winner Farmers’ Market got N1 million.
Olatomiwa Williams, Microsoft Country Manager Nigeria and Ghana affirmed Microsoft’s commitment to working with both the private and public sectors to accelerate digital transformation in African agriculture. As well as harnessing the potential of the youth by helping support homegrown start-ups in critical sectors.
Muhammad Mukhtar, Albany Muhammad, and Sa’adu Abubakar of Team Software Chasers expressed their delight in the product development experience. They added, “It has been an interesting journey with wide experiences from varying degrees”.
Watch the Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon grand finale
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PayInc Group Limited, trading as PayAngel is announcing its selection into the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program. A Microsoft program that seeks to remove traditional barriers that startups face when building a company. PayAngel believes the program will help them innovate faster and accelerate their growth. The company offers remittance and payment solutions to the African Diaspora.
Microsoft Africa Transformation Office in March this year launched the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub in new initiatives to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African startups and fast-track investment in Africa’s start-up ecosystem. It is a new digital and all-inclusive platform that gives startups free access to Microsoft technology, tools, coaching, and support to build and scale their business. It also includes opportunities for the startups to sell to Microsoft’s corporate and enterprise customers.
Jones Amegbor, CEO of PayAngel, notes that the exclusive technology packages in the Hub will allow the company to innovate faster and accelerate its growth.
“What this means to our existing and new customers is a more robust, secured and enhanced system, expansion to other territories and straight-through service delivery”.
Beyond access to technology, the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program empowers young entrepreneurs to innovate and grow by connecting through their mentoring program. Which provides them with industry, business, and technical support to guide them through their next business milestones.
Founders also get access to Microsoft Learn and a variety of programs to help them build connections with customers and accelerate their growth.
The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub centres around these three key areas:
Unlocking innovations for all: The platform eliminates traditional barriers founders face when starting, such as venture capital requirements or third-party validation to help any founder, regardless of background, location, or access, to be successful.
Technology benefits that grow: Keeping pace with a startup’s lifecycle, the platform helps founders speed development with free access to GitHub and the Microsoft Cloud with the ability to unlock additional benefits over time
Access to mentorship and guidance: Through the platform, startups can connect with industry veterans, access tailored startup-centric training and innovate quickly with expert technical guidance.
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Visa is partnering with Flocash to introduce Flostore to help small businesses across Africa accept digital payments. It will also allow the businesses to manage supplies and access financial services across Africa. The Flostore solution consists of an integration of the Visa digital wallet and Flocash’s pan-African payment platform.
In addition to Flostore, Flocash and Visa will bring the element of analytics, bookkeeping and reconciliation to small businesses. Through Visa’s dynamic underwriting capabilities that include buying now pay later structures.
“Visa is committed to expanding the digitization of payments across Africa. With partners like Flocash, our goal is to enable African businesses to access our payments ecosystem and technologies to enable them to innovatively and efficiently serve their customers. This partnership with Flocash, as well as the launch of Flostore, are important steps towards achieving this goal.”
Corine Mbiaketcha, Vice President and General Manager for East Africa at Visa.
SMEs according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) account for 90% of all businesses in Africa. But they have an annual financing gap of over US $136 billion. A digitized SME sector will unlock the huge market potential of the African continent underpinned by rapid population growth.
Through digitization, SMEs can use their digital footprint to tap into both traditional and alternative sources of funding. To expand commerce while banks lower operating costs as they increase their revenue base. Digitization of the lending process enables banks to streamline their inefficient processes for SME lending and deliver value to their customers. 82% of small and micro business respondents to Visa’s annual outlook survey in 2022 indicated a preference for digital payment options.
With a Flostore Tap2phone, small businesses will be able to turn their existing mobile devices into payment acceptance terminals. Tap2phone is an essential and cost-effective mechanism for developing digital payment infrastructure in developing markets.
“Flocash has grown significantly as a travel payments processor over the last few years. We are thrilled to partner with them to build innovative payment solutions that reduce friction in commerce for merchants in East Africa,” Mbiaketcha adds.
On the other hand, the CyberSource Payment Gateway technology incorporates all the safety protocols in place to give customers peace of mind as they transact online. With a design to provide increased fraud protection, minimize cardholder friction, and increase the completion of sales, leading to a better experience for all parties involved. This helps both merchants and issuers detect and avoid fraud more effectively.
“Visa is a great partner to scale Flocash’s pan-African payment platform and develop this critical area of African commerce that can offer enormous continent-wide economic development opportunities.”
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We bring you a list of the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the year country award winners from across Africa. The announcement comes ahead of Microsoft Inspire 2022 where Microsoft will celebrate exemplary achievements from across its global partner ecosystem. The 2022 Microsoft Inspire partner event is set to take place July 19-20 as a free global digital event.
Microsoft uses the partner award to recognize outstanding partner accomplishments within its community. Highlighting organizations building new and innovative solutions for their customers using Microsoft technologies. This year, the company received over three thousand nine hundred entries from one hundred and twenty-six countries. Across categories including, partner competencies, cloud-to-edge technologies, entrepreneurial spirit and social impact.
Below are Microsoft Partner Africa winners from the country and region category.
At Microsoft, we believe our partners make more possible. That’s why we recognize exceptional partner contributions.
2022 Microsoft Partner Africa award winners – country category
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Africa is known as the land of unending opportunities…the aphrodite for the ailing global economy. The continent is taking baby strides in different aspects, and there are people who are moving forward to be the harbinger of change so far as the African economic resurgence is concerned. Let’s discuss a few African Tech Tycoons and get to know more about their story here.
So let’s have a look at the African tech Tycoons …the black pearls of business in this article. (In no particular order).
1. Tunde Kehinde, Co-Managing Director Of African Courier Express
Tunde Kehinde is a London-based businessman who co-founded Jumia, Africa’s first unicorn, with a financial investment of around $1 million from a rocket internet German startup. Presently the company has set a strong foot in Nigeria, and it is now the country’s top eCommerce website.
The path of success with Jumia is so pronounced that Tunde Kehinde set up another tech business in the year 2014, collaborating with Ercin Eksin, founder of Africa Courier Express (ACE). This company aims to streamline the logistics of delivery for various companies working in Nigeria and other African countries.
Tunde recently co-founded Lidya; a digital fintech lender which allows SMEs to unlock one-click, same-day credit and build a credit rating for the first time.
So he is someone who can be a role model for African Youth. Indeed a pathfinder!
2. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder And General Partner, Future Africa
At the early age of 29, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji co-founded some of the most innovative and disruptive tech companies in Africa. Talk of Andela and Flutterwave, companies working actively to transform the tech innovation infrastructure for Africa. His efforts turned Africa’s challenges into opportunities.
With Andela, Aboyeji was of the opinion that Nigerians would love to if they thought they could earn around $105000 or even half from remote work. He joined Flutterwave in the year 2016 and helped raise funding of $35milion in a Series B round. Presently the company has gone on to become the fastest growing payment technology business and Africa’s unicorn.
Iyin is currently looking to help African startups reach the same scale as western companies with Future Africa. By removing the issue of funding, a primary barrier to a startup’s success.
3. Ken Njoroge, Co-Founder Of Cellulant
Ken Njoroge started with just $3000 on his credit card and co-founded Cellulant, a mobile payment system that connects consumers to merchants.
Presently Cellulent has fitted its flag successfully in 10 countries in Africa. The company now connects to 200 merchants and 44 mobile network operators.
Impressed by reputation and integrity, the government in Nigeria turned to the company and offered it a four-year-$8.9 m contract to run a registration and validation system for fertilizers at friendly prices.
4. Obi Ozor, Co-Founder, Kobo360
Ozor Obi began with a small logistic company using the savings that he made by working part-time at a supermarket whilst in school. His small side business began to bring about $7000 every month.
Then he began his business, Kobo 360, a logistic business that uses technology. At that time, the infrastructure of this very business in Africa was not that good enough. But with a never say die attitude, the company has gone on to become one of the largest supply chain providers in Africa, reaching people with resources. It raised $37 million in its series A round.
Conclusion
Other than these, there are other prominent names like Bright Simons, president of mPedigree Network, Jason Njoku, Founder iRokoTv, and Michael Macharia, the group chief executive SevenSeas Technologies.
We are all as interested in Africa’s rise, and we know so are you too. There are many books and resources on Africa that you could download at thepirateproxybay.com to gain comprehensive knowledge.
Indeed the names discussed above are like stars that the African youth like to chase. They are working extremely hard to bring in fortunes for themselves, the company, and the continent in general.
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