Innovation Prize for Africa 2014 Announces Deadline Extension to Promote African-Led Innovation
The winning innovation will be awarded a cash prize of $100,000 USD, with the two runners-up each receiving $25,000 USD each
LAGOS, Nigeria, October 31, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The African Innovation Foundation (http://www.africaninnovation.org) today announced it will extend the deadline for the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2014 (http://www.innovationprizeforafrica.org) applications to 30 November 2013. The IPA is an initiative that mobilizes African innovators and entrepreneurs who deliver market-oriented solutions that increase efficiency or cost-saving in Africa. Attending an innovation roundtable in Nigeria, the IPA representative highlighted the need to invest in innovation to accelerate economic growth on the continent.
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"Africa has experienced one of the fastest economic growths in recent history - 6 per cent on average. Innovation has and will continue to play a vital role in this growth, and with this in mind, the IPA is continuing its work to identify innovators who are contributing to Africa's sustainable development and creating solutions to the continent's everyday challenges ," said Pauline Mujawamariya, IPA Program Director.
This extension is a response to the requests received from many countries indicating that their innovators learned about the competition a little late and would need more time to effectively prepare and submit their entries. To date, IPA has attracted more than 1350 applications from 48 countries. The IPA is focused on promoting African home-grown innovation, scaling them up within Africa to fuel change and overall development for Africa and its people and compete on global platforms
The 2014 IPA prize will focus on 1) Agriculture and agribusiness 2) Environment, energy and water 3) Health and wellbeing 4) ICT 5) Manufacturing and service industry.
Only innovations by Africans for Africans are eligible to enter for the IPA 2014. Africans in the Diaspora can also apply if their innovations are of significance to Africa. The winning innovation will be awarded a cash prize of $100,000 USD, with the two runners-up each receiving $25,000 USD each.
For detailed information of competition categories, conditions of entry, and submission procedures, please visit: InnovationPrizeForAfrica.org (http://www.innovationprizeforafrica.org). For highlights and more information, follow the IPA on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/IPAprize) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/InnovationPrizeforAfrica).
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA).
Contacts
AIF
Pauline Mujawamariya
Phone + 41 44 515 5466
Email [email protected]
WS
Mimi Kalinda
Phone + 27 72 688 1250
Email [email protected]
About AIF
AIF (http://www.africaninnovation.org) supports innovations and other novel initiatives with potential of contributing to sustainable development of African countries. This includes supporting home-grown innovations, facilitating technology transfer as well as supporting other platforms that enhance the exchange of ideas and collaboration among researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers. AIF also promotes transparent processes and procedures within the public sector and combat illegitimate appropriation and dissipation of resources within both the private and public domains. AIF's areas of activity encompass programs & projects in the fields of: Innovation & Access to Technologies, Governance, Education & Culture and Health. For more information, please visit: http://www.africaninnovation.org