Africa Sustainable Futures Awards Winners

Hello Tractor

Tractor financing and deployment, Africa-wide-wide

Limited access to financing and equipment continues to constrain productivity in Africa’s agricultural sector. Hello Tractor’s Pay-As-You-Go Mechanisation and Hubs initiative is offering a different approach to agricultural finance. Instead of using traditional credit histories, the programme relies on data from tractors to assess lending risk, enabling access to loans for those who are typically excluded from formal finance.Since its launch in 2022, it has issued over 300 loans worth $15mn, with high repayment rates and no expected credit losses. Most recipients are first-time borrowers without prior banking relationships, and the majority of tractor service providers work directly with smallholder farmers. Farmers receiving tractor services increase their incomes significantly, while tractor service providers gain sustainable livelihoods. Hello Tractor’s wider platform connects over 2.5 million farmers in 20 countries to tractor services, supported by a fleet of more than 6,500 tractors and combines. The model aims to lower barriers to mechanisation while creating employment opportunities in rural communities at scale.  

Highly Commended

 Ngwilago Youth Transcend - AI-driven, offline-enabled unified platform for multifunction irrigation, Tanzania

Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries

Nigeria

Emzor Pharmaceuticals is expanding local production to reduce Nigeria’s heavy reliance on imported medicines, which currently make up 70 per cent of supply. The company already manufactures more than 200 products across five plants. It is now planning West Africa’s first Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients facility, which is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sovereignty, improve affordability, and support regional supply chains. This vertically integrated model will enable cost competitiveness, quality assurance, and export opportunities to more than 25 countries. The initiative will also generate jobs, support skills transfer, and reduce foreign exchange outflows, while embedding sustainability practices. Emzor plans to scale across the continent and provide a replicable blueprint for pharmaceutical localisation and industrialisation in Africa.

Highly Commended

Do The Right Thing Apparel, Ghana

AI Consult

An initiative of Penda Health, Kenya

Penda Health has launched AI Consult, an AI-powered clinical safety net integrated into its electronic health record, developed in partnership with OpenAI and PATH. By improving decision-making without slowing workflows, AI Consult enhances patient safety while cutting unnecessary antibiotic use and costs. Deployed across 15 clinics in Kenya, the tool runs alongside patient visits, alerting clinicians at key decision points. This design reduces diagnostic errors by 16 per cent and treatment errors by 14 per cent, with even greater error reductions in high-risk cases. Crucially, adoption was driven by a robust change management programme including peer champions and personalised feedback. The software has been deployed during more than 40,000 visits and is backed by a Gates Foundation-funded trial, illustrating how AI can be embedded into frontline care in low-resource settings. 

Highly Commended

Luvelo Solutions, a digital platform for healthcare in collaboration with Luke Commission, Eswatini

Triply

Operations and payments stack for travel agencies, Kenya

Triply, a fintech start-up founded in Africa, targets the financial barriers that constrain small travel agencies across emerging markets. Many of these businesses struggle with foreign exchange frictions and manual reconciliation processes that restrict working capital and growth. Triply’s system consolidates quoting, invoicing, collections, foreign exchange and supplier payouts into a single ledger-based wallet with multi-currency accounts. Its virtual card model pays suppliers only when travellers settle bills, reducing settlement risk and easing cash pressures. With more than 5,000 agencies onboarded, largely women- and youth-led, Triply has begun to expand beyond East Africa. In the next five to 10 years, it aims to become the main operating system for travel SMEs on the continent.

Highly Commended

The Cradle Group - Hotels and lodges, Kenya

MOPO battery rental system

by Mobile Power, Africa-wide

MOPO offers a decentralised battery rental system powered by solar charging hubs. Rather than relying on unreliable or non-existent grid infrastructure or prohibitively expensive household solar systems, MOPO enables users to rent its proprietary rechargeable smart MOPO batteries on a pay-as-you-go basis through a network of local agents. The service replaces costly and polluting petrol generators, particularly in off-grid regions or areas that suffer from unstable power infrastructure. Users access clean energy without upfront investment or long-term debt, while agents earn commissions via mobile money-enabled transactions. MOPO batteries can only be recharged at MOPO hubs, ensuring asset control and system integrity. With over 30mn rentals conducted across six countries, the model, backed by global investors, is proving both scalable and financially successful. 

Highly Commended

Husk Power mini-grids, Nigeria

Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF)

Nigeria

The Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF) is the country’s first and only listed infrastructure fund, created to bridge two key gaps: long-term, naira-denominated financing for infrastructure projects and inflation-beating returns for pension funds. It is the only infrastructure fund on the Nigerian Exchange. NIDF has financed $351mn in loans, enabling over $600mn in infrastructure delivery, including power plants, pipelines, telecom towers and gas facilities. The fund has paid 34 consecutive quarterly distributions, maintains a stable NAV, and has never recorded a non-performing loan. With over 1,000 investors and 11 successful capital raises, it has shifted financing norms away from US dollar debt and contributed to a broader local-currency project finance ecosystem. 

Highly Commended

Eastern Cape Fibre and Broadband Project, South Africa-wide

SafePatch emergency detection device

by Ogooue Corps Technologies, Gabon

SafePatch tackles the lack of discreet, affordable, and effective devices to protect vulnerable people – such as the elderly, children, and isolated patients – in medical emergencies. In many African countries, healthcare systems struggle with limited coverage and responsiveness. SafePatch is a smart, biodegradable GPS patch worn on the skin that detects falls, inactivity, or unusual movement and sends real-time alerts to families or emergency services. Unlike costly smartwatches, it requires no charger, recharging instead from body heat, and is discreet and tamper-proof. Combining eco-friendly materials, miniaturisation, and AI, SafePatch redefines preventive care, telemonitoring, and safety in low-resource and rural environments. 

MOPO battery rental system

by Mobile Power, Africa-wide

MOPO offers a decentralised battery rental system powered by solar charging hubs. Rather than relying on unreliable or non-existent grid infrastructure or prohibitively expensive household solar systems, MOPO enables users to rent its proprietary rechargeable smart MOPO batteries on a pay-as-you-go basis through a network of local agents. The service replaces costly and polluting petrol generators, particularly in off-grid regions or areas that suffer from unstable power infrastructure. Users access clean energy without upfront investment or long-term debt, while agents earn commissions via mobile money-enabled transactions. MOPO batteries can only be recharged at MOPO hubs, ensuring asset control and system integrity. With over 30mn rentals conducted across six countries, the model, backed by global investors, is proving both scalable and financially successful.