South African Company Wins Eighth Edition Of Sankalp Africa Summit

Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap hosted the virtual Sankalp Africa Summit, from the 2^nd to 4^th March 2021, one of Africa’s largest inclusive networking platforms focusing on entrepreneurship and the impact investing ecosystem.

Some of the key highlights of the summit include the awarding of the top three most innovative young entrepreneurs in Africa and sharing of sector insights on, rebuilding a resilient universally accessible health system capable of rapidly detecting, assessing, reporting; rebuilding robust local institutions in Africa to attain globally competitive levels post Covid-19, and eliminating social and economic injustices to improve equity across humans.

Each year, the Summit recognizes and rewards high-impact enterprises in the Africa region which tackle key development challenges. The finalists get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel comprising eminent business leaders and investors. 

This year’s finalists were Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Center, MamaPrime, and KIRI EV from Kenya; EcoV and Iyeza Health from South Africa; OBRI from Tanzania; Masaka Creamery from Rwanda; and MaTontine from Senegal.

The 2021 Sankalp Africa Awards winner was Iyeza Health, a healthcare start-up from South Africa that collects and delivers high-cost and critical chronic medication for Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV), diabetes, and cancer treatment drugs from public health facilities to patient’s doorsteps through a bicycle delivery service dubbed Iyeza Express.

The First Runner Up emerged as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Centre (WEEE Center), a Kenya electronic waste management start-up that offers the safe disposal of electrical and electronic waste (e-Waste). The Second Runner Up was OBRI Tanzania, an Agri-Food start-up from Tanzania that focuses on processing and supplying healthier edible oils.

“Sankalp Forum is one of our largest initiatives that aim to bring the community together to help solve the problems that face us through cutting-edge innovation and high potential entrepreneurship. Sankalp today, in its 8^th year in Africa, brought to the world a post-Covid view of economic resurgence and resilience, thereby demonstrating our ability to drive action and influence outcomes,” said Arielle Molino, Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa 

The Summit, which was held virtually engaged over 1,200 stakeholders, from 40+ countries around the world, including participants from 30 African countries. 

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Some of the key renowned speakers that the summit attracted include Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trade and Development Bank, Dr. Arkebe Oqubay, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author, Dorothy Tembo, Deputy Executive Director, International Trade Centre, Dr Mabouba Diagne, VP Finance and Corporate Services from ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Somachi Chris-Asoluka, Director of Partnerships and Communications, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Sara Mbago-Bhunu, Regional Director East and Southern Africa, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Wanjira Mathai , Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, of World Resources Institute and Margaret Busby, Writer, editor, broadcaster and literary critic among others.