The 12 Finalists That Will Battle for $10,000

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After six bootcamps and national pitch events in 3 weeks, the lineup for the Regional Pitch Event of the Digital Innovations for Business Resilience in the East African Community, a program under the dSkills@EA project, has been finalized. A total of 12 teams from the six East African Community member states (started before DRC joined) will battle it out for $10,000. 

These 12 teams emerged as the top two from their national pitch events. Each team has already received $1,000 courtesy of the Inter-University Council for East Africa(IUCEA) while those in Tanzania received a further $750 from the country partners UNDP Accelerator Labs. 

The first pitch events were in Uganda and South Sudan which took place on 26th March 2022 at the end of week-long bootcamps. Kenya and Rwanda followed suit on 2nd April 2022 and the final pitch events were in Tanzania and Burundi on 9th April 2022. These are the teams that emerged from a crowd of 10 that made it to the bootcamps.

The 12 Finalists For the Regional Pitch Event in May

1.E-Health by Gerard Kakunze (Burundi)

E-Health is a mobile app where patients can register and book appointments/consultations online using messaging or video.

2. Innova Mobile App by Jean Marie Benjamin Lionel Muhimpundu (Burundi)

Innova is an app that is connected to the Burundian tax administration and any taxpayer so that they can obtain their tax receipts directly to their email addresses.

3. TellAdvert by Walter Andrew (Tanzania)

TellAdvert is a web app that enables vendors to sell their products to offline and online customers.

4. Agrichain by Justine Bahati (Tanzania)

Agrichain connects farmers to buyers directly by listing their produce via SMS and web platform.

5.Easy Home by Benaiah Wepundi (Kenya)

Easy Home is a digital innovation that provides property owners with a platform to list their properties, screen tenants based on data that we provide and manage their properties. 

6. Impact Farm by Charles Oyamo (Kenya)

Impact Farm is a grocery delivery service that delivers fresh groceries in under 30 minutes from a network of small scale farmers. 

7. Smart Water Meter by Ndayisenga Gilbert (Rwanda)

Smart Water Meter is an innovation that counts the water consumed through its digital water monitoring platform. It also predicts water demand and provides real-time notifications on water usage. 

8. BEYI Group by Abayisenga Enock (Rwanda)

BEYI Group is the builder of the Agri-automatic Rice Transplanter, the world’s first machine that can transplant rice automatically without an operator on board. 

9. Early Stroke Detector, by Keith Richard Kwagala (Uganda) 

The Early Stroke Detector is a wearable portable device that monitors the behaviour of blood flow through the carotid arteries by amplifying and listening to the sound. It records this and will beep whenever blood flow is interrupted within the carotid artery leading to the brain.

10. Kawu, by Steven Kakooza (Uganda) 

Kawu is a 5D approach that addresses money transfer, safe expenditure, and savings challenges amongst students. It also offers alternative sources of income to the school staff that acts as agents. 

11. GoGo Play, by Rachel Hakim 

GoGo Play is a South Sudanese subscription-based video-on-demand service offering a variety of content like music, series, drama, comedy, ticketing, and events. It will be the bridge between the audience and creative creators. It will expose, market, promote, distribute, monetize and employ entertainers. 

12. Nileboda, by Suzanne Gideon

Nileboda is a ride-hailing digital innovation that connects commuters to well-trained bike riders through a mobile app. 

What is Next?

The 12 finalists will battle it out for $10,000 at the regional pitch event that will take place in May. The dates for the event will be confirmed in due course. The event will be online. 

About the Program.

Digital Skills for an Innovative East African Industry (dSkills@EA) is a project as part of the technical development cooperation between the German Government under the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat.

The project is implemented by the Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), together with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the East African-German academic consortium led by the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) and the University of Oldenburg (UOL) together with its partners the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the University of Technology and Arts Byumba (UTAB), the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

 

Selected Bootcamp Participants in Burundi

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We are glad to announce the 10 participants from Burundi that have qualified for the national bootcamps and pitch events that are set to start on 4th April 2022. The bootcamps are the third phase of the  Digital Innovations for Business Resilience in the East African Community, a program under the dSkills@EA project.

This program aims to support young innovators at universities in the East African Community to develop and implement digital innovations for business resilience in the times of Covid-19. It started with a call for applications from 24th January 2022 to 21st February 2022. Successful applicants then entered the Ideathon phase which ran from 25th February 2022 to 7th March 2022. Read more about the program here.   

 The 10 participants that advanced to the Bootcamp phase were selected by a combination of country leads and experts using the selection criteria defined here. 

Here Are The 10 Selected Teams To Participate In The Burundi Bootcamp

1. Fixer by Uwingabire Alberic

Fixer is bringing a new innovative automatic sensing machine that will help to normalize the production of spare parts in Burundi.

2. Thanzo by Gustave Nzitunga

Thanzo is an easier way to accept payments anywhere for any business that is operating online in Burundi.

3. Ripat by Rodrigue Ahinkuye

Ripat is an innovation that aims to close the agricultural technology gap to improve the livelihoods and self-support of the local farmers.

4. BuySell by Yvette Uwimana

BuySell is a mobile app that allows customers to view the storekeepers’ products and their prices to order. 

5. E-Health by Gerard Kakunze

E-Health is a mobile app where patients can register and book appointments/consultations online using messaging or video.

6. Kwikgura App by Noella Niyiduhaye

Kwikgura is an app that connects customers to business owners where the items that are available can be viewed, ordered and delivered. 

7.Innova Mobile App by Jean Marie Benjamin Lionel Muhimpundu

Innova is an app that is connected to the Burundian tax administration and any taxpayer so that they can obtain their tax receipts directly to their email addresses.

8. S.I.A Agritop by Esther Ndayihimbaze

This is a technology system that uses IoT(Internet of Things) to monitor and control the crops by sending live data to the farmers about temperature, humidity, soil moisture etc from the farmland.

9. Twige Burundi by Elie Niyogusengwa

This is an innovation that makes it easy for students to access school books and archives of state exams through its mobile-friendly website.

10. Shaza Virtual Market by Elie Bubuya

Shaza Virtual Market enables people to sell clothes on Whatsapp status. It also facilitates delivery of the ordered products to workplaces and homes. 

What is Next?

The Burundi Bootcamp phase will begin on 4th April 2022 and will be held at the Universite Lumiere de Bujumbura. This phase will end with a pitch event on 9th April 2022 at the same venue where the top two participants to represent Burundi at the regional grand finale will be selected.  

  

 

 

 

 

Selected Bootcamp Participants for Tanzania

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We are glad to announce the 10 participants from Tanzania that have qualified for the national bootcamps and pitch events that are set to start on 4th April 2022. The bootcamps are the third phase of the  Digital Innovations for Business Resilience in the East African Community, a program under the dSkills@EA project.

This program aims to support young innovators at universities in the East African Community to develop and implement digital innovations for business resilience in the times of Covid-19. It started with a call for applications from 24th January 2022 to 21st February 2022. Successful applicants then entered the Ideathon phase which ran from 25th February 2022 to 7th March 2022. Read more about the program here.   

 The 10 participants that advanced to the Bootcamp phase were selected by a combination of country leads and experts using the selection criteria defined here.  

Here Are The 10 Selected Teams To Participate In The Tanzania Bootcamp

1. UltraX Art Group led by Dativa Anthony

UltraX Art Group is a 3D water fountain with fish and electrical features inside that increase customer interaction for shop owners.

2. Crafts Zone by Mtwa Mgimwa

Crafts Zone is an e-commerce site for sellers of handicrafts. They list their products on the website and reach a market from all over the world.

3. NgaoPay by Erick Sollo

NgaoPay is a fintech that links both mobile money and bank card payments into one API that a seller can use to accept almost all payments from buyers.

4. Greenia Services by Benny Sanga

Greenia Services built a device that is powered by biosensors and can detect a chemical substance in any object.

5. BusyCheck by Samuel Killagane

This is a system that will be supported by machine learning and AI to support various operations and processes of business through automation and analysis. 

6. Afyatoon by Glory Charles Mlagwa

Ayatoon creates specialized content for health facilities, clubs and other health-based organisations to deliver specific health information and education material.

7. Agrichain by Justine Bahati

Agrichain connects farmers to buyers directly by listing their produce via SMS and web platform.

8. Createch by Said Shabani Hozza

Through its syllabus based projects, Createch is able to improve the students’ ability to understand concepts taught in class through its alternative fun and interactive studying processes.

9. Talk Sign by Jackson Mganga

Talk Sign is an app that allows the user to enter text and voice notes and it will translate them into sign language. 

10. TellAdvert by Walter Andrew

TellAdvert is a web app that enables vendors to sell their products to offline and online customers.

What is Next?

The Tanzania Bootcamp phase will begin on 4th April 2022 and will be held at dLab in Dar es Salaam. This phase will end with a pitch event on 9th April 2022 at the University of Dar es Salaam where the top two participants to represent Tanzania at the regional grand finale will be selected. You can join the event as a member of the online audience by registering here www.dskills.iucea.org/tz-pitch  

  

 

 

 

 

Easy House, Impact Farm, Smart Water Meter and Beyi Group Win in Kenya and Rwanda

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Proptech startup, Easy House and grocery delivery innovation, Impact Fram were crowned winners of the Kenya leg of the Digital Innovations for Business Resilience in the EAC region. In Rwanda, Beyi Group and Smart Water Meter finished on top of the pile. Each of the four startups bagged $1,000 to further their innovations courtesy of the Inter-University Council.

The two winners from Kenya, Impact Farm and Easy House receive their dummy cheques from IUCEA’s Ben Ruhinda

Easy Home is a digital innovation that provides property owners with a platform to list their properties, screen tenants based on data that we provide and manage their properties. The house hunting experience is marred by fraud in Kenya with many conmen that pause as real estate agents. Easy House is looking to bring organisation to the industry, and this is why the judge felt str strongly about it. 

Impact Farm, on the other hand, is a grocery delivery service that delivers fresh groceries in under 30 minutes from a network of small scale farmers. This means a steady market for the groceries produced by the farmers while the urban dwellers receive fresh groceries from the gardens. 

In Rwanda, Smart Water Meter and Beyi Group emerged as winners. Smart Water Meter is an innovation that counts the water consumed through its digital water monitoring platform. It also predicts water demand and provides real-time notifications on water usage. BEYI Group is the builder of the Agri-automatic Rice Transplanter, the world’s first machine that can transplant rice automatically without an operator on board. They wowed the judges when they showed them a prototype of the machine and how it exactly works.

The two winning teams from Rwanda, Smart Water Meter and Beyi Group (holding plaques) pose for a photo with the judges

The National Pitch Event for Kenya was held at Daystar University in Nairobi on Saturday 2nd April 2022 and it came at the end of a week-long boot camp at Strathmore University. Only the top 10 startups were invited to this Bootcamp from the over 200 innovators that applied.

For Rwanda, which was also held at the same time, both the BootCamp and pitch event took place at Grid Innovation and Incubation Hub (GIIH) IN the University of Rwanda. Burundi and Tanzania will follow from 4th April up to 9th April 2022. Uganda and South Sudan were wrapped up already. The Bootcamp and national pitch events took place from 21st March to 26th March 2022. The top two teams from each country will compete at the regional finals for a share of $10,000 in grants. To join Easy House, Impact Farm, Smart Water Meter and BEYI Group will be NileBoda and GoGo Play from South Sudan while Early Stroke Detector and KAWU will represent Uganda. The lineup will be completed by the four winners from Tanzania and Burundi National Pitch Events. 

About the Program

Digital Skills for an Innovative East African Industry (dSkills@EA) is a project as part of the technical development cooperation between the German Government under the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat.

The project is implemented by the Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), together with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the East African-German academic consortium led by the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) and the University of Oldenburg (UOL) together with its partners the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the University of Technology and Arts Byumba (UTAB), the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim and the German Aerospace Center