London, May 29, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Eight African entrepreneurs, among them three Nigerians have been awarded £40K funding to harness engineering and business skills of their organisations to help tackle the spread of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa

Of the eight awardees, five are female entrepreneurs all combining their engineering and business skills in the fight against COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa under Project CARE (COVID Africa Rapid Entrepreneurs) initiative

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The awardees are: !Catherine Wanjoya – Slimlak Agencies – Kenya
Incinerators to safely dispose of used PPE on-site.

Josephine Marie Godwyll – Lab & Library on Wheels – Ghana
Ananse@Home STEM and art home-schooling app for children aged 8–14.

Chinenye Justin Nwaogwugwu – Macjames Global Resources Limited – Nigeria
Manufacture of MACJAMES ® HandSafe instant hand sanitizer with moisturiser, that meets WHO standards.

Osewe Collince Oluoch – ChanjoPlus – Kenya
USSD platform for real-time contact-tracing and to disseminate health information.

Frida Njogu-Ndongwe – Afyakit – Kenya
Timely, actionable data-driven insights on the readiness of health facilities to provide critical services.

Victor Boyle-Komolafe – GIVO (Garbage In, Value Out) – Nigeria
Production of affordable WHO-standard face shields from recycled PET bottles.

Linah Pununu Maphanga – Farmers Assistant – South Africa
Connecting smallholder farmers with local consumers, repairing informal supply chains.

Aisha Raheem – Farmz2U – Nigeria
Supporting farmers with data-driven insights to increase production and online distribution channels to increase sales.

The funding was initiated by the Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom, UK in early April as the virulence and rapid transmission of COVID-19 gripped countries around the world.

The initiative is supported by the UK Government’s funding through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and Project CARE (COVID Africa Rapid Entrepreneurs).

A statement from the Academy said around 200 current and past recipients of the Academy’s Africa Prize and Leaders in Innovation Fellowships programmes were invited to apply for funding last month. Some 53 applications were received and eight entrepreneurs, including five women, were successful. Each has received £5,000 to support them in pivoting or scaling up their current business model

Dr Hayaatun Sillem, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “The outlook for many African countries is very concerning. Alongside the medical professionals who risk their lives daily to do battle with this virus, engineers have important roles to play in managing and mitigating the impacts of the disease.

As with the Academy’s other work in response to the coronavirus outbreak, our goal for Project CARE is to marshal the knowledge and expertise of our Fellows and wider network of engineers to enhance the response to COVID-19, in this case supporting our network of motivated and talented young engineering entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa to apply their skills to the challenge”