Adeloye Olanrewaju and Benson Godwin Clinch Internet.org’s Innovation Challenge in Africa Awards | See Other Winners

Two Nigerians were winners in the Internet.org’s Innovation Challenge in Africa Awards.

Benson Godwin, founder of Tuteria, a platform that  connects people seeking to learn with people around them who can teach, won the Impact Award under the Education Section of the Challenge.

Tuteria provides an online platform which allows users to find, evaluate, book and pay for lessons with competent local tutors, coaches, instructors and mentors.

Godwin, a graduate of Systems Engineering, was a finalist in the Aso Villa Demo Day 2016 in Abuja.

Adeloye Olanrewaju, who founded SaferMom, which provides pregnant and new mothers with simple tools to help make informed health decisions via sms, voice services and its mobile app, also won the Impact Award under the Economic Development Section of the challenge.

SaferMom uses a chain of community health partners and mobile technology to track the health of pregnant moms and newborn babies, immunization schedules for babies, nutrition and behavioral routines based on their fetal development stages and antenatal care. This service is available in the English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin languages.

In 2016, Olarenwaju was one of three Nigerians that received the Queens’ Young Leaders Awards.

They both won $50,000 each.

Internet.org also granted $150,000 each to two Innovation Challenge Award winners and another $50,000 to the other two Impact Award winners.

The other winners are:

Economic Empowerment

Innovation Challenge Award Winner
Founded by Mark Davies in Ghana, Esoko makes it easier for businesses, governments, NGOs and others to connect with farmers. Through its web and mobile apps, Esoko enables two-way data flows that allow smallholder farmers to access vital agricultural information and markets, and businesses to gain better visibility into their supply chains. The name Esoko comes from “e” representing electronic and “soko” meaning market in Swahili. Esoko has since spread its services to eight additional markets across Africa.

Impact Award Winner
mPedigree Goldkeys from Ghana is an anti-counterfeiting, tracking and tracing solution that uses consumers’ mobile phones as a verification tool. In Uganda and Kenya, this service is being used to help farmers determine whether they are buying original counterfeit seeds.

They have since spread their services to Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Egypt for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agro-inputs like seeds and pesticides, and electrical components.

mPedigreee Network was founded by Bright Simons.

Education

Innovation Challenge Award Winner
Founded in South Africa by Riaz Moola, Hyperion Development is a social enterprise that has built the first online course platform for computer science education supported by the largest online community of software developers in Africa. Hyperion Development allows anyone to take online courses in coding with a personal computer or mobile phone; even without a broadband connection, which fewer than 1% of Africans have.

Impact Award Winner
Launched in Ghana, Mutti by mPharma is a drug affordability service that enables patients to access high quality medicine at lower prices with flexible payment terms through micro-payments. Mutti means medicine in Bemba, a Zambian language. They also operate in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote D’Ivoire, targeting three main chronic conditions: hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It was co-founded by Gregory Rockson, Dan Shoukimas and James Finucane.

The challenge was judged by:

• Ike Eze, Head, PocketMoni and Executive Director, Strategy and Corporate Development, eTranzact
• Ime Archibong, Director of Product Partnerships, Facebook
• Rob LeBlanc, Chief Investment Officer, The Awethu Project
• Terryanne Chebet, Founder, Keyara Organics

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