By: Yewande Odumosu, 2025 judge for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
Following COP30 in Belém, much of the global conversation on climate change remains focused on how countries will implement the commitments they have made, strengthen resilience to climate-driven disruptions and ensure that the benefits of transition are shared fairly. Yet while these debates continue, many African innovators are already building solutions to the practical challenges behind those discussions, from health vulnerabilities and food insecurity, to energy reliability and digital inclusion. As a judge for the 2025 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, I had the privilege of seeing some of these incredible solutions up close.
This year’s entries for the Africa Prize were not theoretical. They were practical, people-centred and built for the realities of the communities they serve. They were also ambitious, designed with scale in mind and grounded in a deep understanding of their own context.
That combination matters. When engineers pair creativity with local insight, you get solutions that deliver from day one and that can grow. You also get entrepreneurs who move fast, learn even faster and hold themselves to a high bar on both commercial performance and creating societal benefit. That was the mindset I saw repeatedly this year: understand the problem thoroughly, build on what already exists, test early and stay focused on sustainable impact.
Across healthcare, assistive technology, food security and clean energy, each finalist engineered a solution with a philosophy rooted in context, constant improvement and empathy. They balanced impact with commercial viability, and they learned at the pace required to grow. Their work offers lessons for a global community searching for scalable, people-centred approaches to systemic challenges.
In Uganda, biomedical engineer Vivian Arinaitwe developed NeoNest, a portable neonatal warming and monitoring device that prevents hypothermia in premature babies during ambulance transfers between rural clinics and hospitals. It regulates temperature, monitors vital signs and alerts caregivers to abnormalities. It is simple, affordable and designed around ambulance workflows, which is precisely why it works.
From Ghana, Frank Owusu’s Aquamet is helping smallholder fish farmers reduce losses and boost yields using real-time monitoring of pH, dissolved oxygen and water temperature. Farmers using the device report 10–15% yield increases compared with past loss rates of up to 45%. This is engineering that is strengthening livelihoods.
In Kenya, Carol Ofafa’s E-Safiri is building solar-powered battery-swapping hubs for electric bikes and motorbikes. By shifting charging to community hubs and using IoT-enabled batteries, E-Safiri sidesteps one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption: the lack of home electricity access. These hubs also supply surplus power to neighbouring households, illustrating the systems thinking increasingly common among African innovators.
And the winner of this year’s Africa Prize, Elly Savatia, also from Kenya, has created Terp 360 – an innovation that uses AI and motion capture to translate speech into sign language through a lifelike 3D avatar. Elly’s team recorded more than 2,300 Kenya Sign Language motions with deaf and hard-of-hearing collaborators, creating a system that is both accurate and culturally resonant. Elly’s innovation is transforming accessibility in classrooms, workplaces and public spaces and is a deserving winner of the 2025 Africa Prize.
What connects all these innovations is a consistent approach to problem-solving. The founders took time to understand the problem and existing solutions. They improved on what was already there. They tested with real users from the outset. And they learned quickly, adjusting products, business models and partnerships as they went. Their mindset was clear: solve a meaningful problem, solve it well and build something that can grow.
This mindset is shaped by the environments in which African engineers operate. We build with constraints in mind: intermittent electricity, variable connectivity, high data costs, uneven regulation. These are not barriers; they are design parameters. They push us to create technology that is lighter, faster, affordable and resilient. They demand frugality, creativity and localisation. That is why African-built products often feel more intuitive in the communities they serve.
I am often asked what helps early-stage ventures in Africa scale. From my experience, the teams that succeed combine technical ability with deep contextual knowledge, fast learning curves and a commitment to sustainability. For early-stage ventures, four pillars matter most: a capable and adaptable team; a real problem matched with a viable solution; a market that is well understood; and a credible path to growth. Partnerships, particularly with regulators and corporates, accelerate each of these pillars dramatically.
Looking ahead, I would love to see more platform plays in health tech and agritech – foundational technologies that allow smaller ventures to plug in, scale regionally and share value. I would also welcome more engineering-focused approaches to underlying diseases that shape long-term health outcomes across the continent. And while AI is often overhyped globally, I believe there is enormous untapped potential for African teams to use it in grounded, practical ways, just as the shortlisted innovators for this year’s Africa Prize have begun to do.
The world is debating how to implement commitments, operationalise resilience and deliver equitable progress beyond COP30, but African innovators are already offering blueprints. They show that progress begins with people who understand a problem deeply enough to improve it today. Their work demonstrates that resilience is not a slogan; it is the product of engineering plus empathy, iteration plus insight.
As an electrical engineer who has worked across software, telecoms, renewable energy and fintech, I found the judging process energising. The connection between engineering and technology is closer than ever, and our founders are proving it every day. They are courageous, they collaborate, and they learn at a remarkable pace. With limited resources, they do a lot. With the right partnerships and policy, they will do even more.
If I had to describe this year’s Africa Prize finalists in two words, I would say that they are creative and resilient. Creative, because they have designed for context in a way that makes adoption natural. Resilient, because they have kept improving in the face of real constraints, and because they care deeply about the people they serve. That, to me, is the future of innovation in Africa. It is practical. It is scalable. And thankfully, it is already here.
