…in Inaugural ESCCOM Innovation Challenge
BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MATSAPHA – Three youth businesses walked away with nearly a quarter of a million today.
This happened at the awards ceremony for the Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) Innovation Challenge held at Esibayeni Lodge.
The three innovators who placed in the top three positions were Techno Friends at number three, winning E55,000 in seed capital, Digimage at number two, who won E75,000 in seed capital, and Bekela Africa at number one, winning E100,000 in seed capital funding.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, ESCCOM Chief Executive Mvilawemphi Dlamini encouraged all the top 15 shortlisted innovators to continue working hard to bring innovative solutions to the country, as ESCCOM very much supports their initiative in the ecosystem.
“Through this initiative, we seek to advance the growth of the ecosystems,” said the Chief Executive.
“This is one of the things that keep us up at night as the Commission. We are constantly looking at ways to have more local solutions and content being produced”, said the ESCCOM Chief Executive.
He expanded that when the Commission launched the challenge, they were looking to at discovering new ideas that would propel the country forward.
“This year’s challenge focused on solving challenges in the country, focusing on ICT in Agriculture, and ICT in Education”, said the Chief Executive.
He further announced that the ESCCOM will continue to support the innovators, by introducing the ICT in Agriculture startups to the Ministry of Agriculture, for example.
His words were echoed by one of the judges, Dr Methula from the University of Eswatini.
“One of the things we lack in the country is mentorsship and an ecosystem. The Innovation you are coming with should address an existing problem in the ecosystem, for it is the ecosystem that will consume the solution when it is ready,” said Dr Methula when giving feedback to all the participants.
“We still have work to do in building the ecosystem. All those 15 finalists should get mentorship because that will channel them appropriately through the ecosystem, as some of the solutions are good, but do not readily address a problem in the ecosystem,” said Methula.
The top three innovators are all currently in the market with their innovations, which was a strong indicator to the judges of their strength and impact.
Speaking on placing in the top three positions, all the winners expressed excitement and gratefulness to have made it that far in the competition.
“I’m very excited for the children of Eswatini, because with the prize money we won, we will be procuring more resources to teach children about robotics and programming,” said Bongekile Shiba, founder and CEO of Techno Friends.
Digital payments platform, Digimage, founder Sindiso Dlamini had something similar to say.
“We are happy to be here finally, and to be awarded. We look forward to getting our solution to more people in Eswatini, as well as to grow the company beyond our borders since our solution is applicable in other countries as well,” said Dlamini.
Bekela Africa, who were awarded the top prize, were also excited to bring their parcel storage solution to more people.
“We are excited and really happy that Eswatini is taking this direction of supporting innovative entrepreneurs, because it has been a struggle for some time to get support for this work,” said Salebona Nxumalo of Bekela Africa.
The winners will also represent Eswatini in an international hackerthon competition to be announced soon, as revealed by the ESCCOM Chief Executive.
(Courtesy Pics of ESCCOM)
