Entrepreneur's Corner

Sisters Win Ksh 119 Million For Transforming Communities

BY Jane Muia · August 25, 2022 09:08 am

KEY POINTS

The firm Drop Access was crowned the winner of the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge on Tuesday, August 23, defeating over 1,200 entries from 99 countries across the globe.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Norah and Dolphine co-financed the company in 2018 to positively transform rural and grassroots communities. It was officially established as a non-governmental organization in 2019.

In the recent competition, Drop Access was one of the 15 teams to benefit from the prestigious award of 119 million shillings.

Norah and Dolphine Magero, co-founders of Drop Access, have made the country proud after their company was crowned the global winner in a prize from Cisco valued at $1 million (Ksh 119 million).

The firm Drop Access was crowned the winner of the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge on Tuesday, August 23, defeating over 1,200 entries from 99 countries across the globe.

With the title, the company received a reward of $250,000 (KSh29.9 million) to advance its VacciBox technology. The VacciBox is a portable solar fridge that is used to safely store and transport vaccines, drugs, and blood for transfusion to remote, hard-to-reach, and off-grid rural communities.

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Norah and Dolphine co-financed the company in 2018 to positively transform rural and grassroots communities. It was officially established as a non-governmental organization in 2019.

In the recent competition, Drop Access was one of the 15 teams to benefit from the prestigious award of 119 million shillings.

“This year’s competition generated nearly 1,200 entries from teams in 99 countries. From this astonishing array of teams and ideas, 15 winning teams were selected from 10 countries, including five not represented among previous winners: Australia, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, and Pakistan We are also pleased to report that 67 percent of our 2022 winners have a female founder. Said Cisco Executive Vice-President Francine Katsoudas.

India’s A2P Energy Solution emerged second in the competition, and received 11.98 million Ksh (USD 100 000) for creating an AI-based platform called Carbon2Climate that identifies burning points of biomass across India so crop residues can be collected & converted into biofuel which is then sold to buyers!

The Magero sisters are no strangers to success, in early June 2022, Norah Magero was named the first Kenyan and the second woman to win the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation since its launch in March 2014.

She won £25,000 (Ksh.3.6 million) at the virtual awards ceremony held on June 15, 2022. Norah and Dolphine are passionate about using technology to improve the lives of people in their community, and they are dedicated to making sure that all Kenyans have access to quality health care.

The Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge is an important recognition of the hard work of the two Kenyan sisters and innovation, and it will help them to expand their reach and make even more of an impact on rural communities throughout Kenya.