A South African inventor developing a smart locker system that improves access to healthcare has won a major African engineering award, CNN reports.
Neo Hutiri invented Pelebox, an internet-enabled locker system that dispenses medication for chronic diseases to patients, helping to reduce queues and pressure on hospital resources. He was awarded £50,000 ($63,000) from the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering. King Charles III’s sister Princess Anne also awarded him the medal during a ceremony in London on Wednesday.
The event marked the 10th anniversary of the Academy’s prestigious Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which recognises entrepreneurs who have developed technologies to solve local challenges on the continent.
Hutiri first won the Africa Prize for his lockers in 2019, when he implemented a pilot programme of the Pelebox concept. Since then, his invention has scaled up significantly, being utilised in 123 health facilities in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.
“Winning the Africa prize helped open a lot of doors, gave us good recognition, changed a lot of ‘noes’ into ‘yesses’ and ultimately gave us the audience we’re looking for. We want to see Pelebox operating across six countries and this award will position us to build the right team, enhance our product and enable us to continue reaching and creating value for patients that are spending hours and hours in clinics in southern Africa.”
In total, this year the Academy aims to invest more than £1 million ($1.2 million) in Africa Prize graduates through grants, awards and acceleration programmes. The aim, according to Cameroonian tech entrepreneur and award judge Rebecca Enonchong, is to help scale engineering innovation and maximise its impact. It is also an opportunity to expose African talent to the rest of the world.
“There isn’t enough funding available for African startups. We don’t want all the funding to come in the form of grants, as we see in the Africa Prize. We want investors to start to believe that they can also make money by investing in African startups. But sometimes, in order for those investors to know that these startups exist, an Africa Prize becomes really necessary to give those startups the visibility they need to attract investment.”
Since its foundation in 2014, the African Engineering Innovation Prize has supported over 140 entrepreneurs from 23 African countries through business training programmes, engineering mentorship, communications support and pitching opportunities.
The Academy reports that alumni from the award have collectively raised more than $39 million and introduced more than 470 products and services to the global marketplace.
It’s critical for us to be able to showcase talent from across the continent, because even in small towns and villages on the continent, you have innovators and people that are developing incredible solutions.
