The fourth annual GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize reached nearly six million people during the entry window from 19 April to 6 June 2022
KIGALI, Rwanda, September 9, 2022/APO Group/ —
After impressive on-stage pitches to an expert panel of judges earlier this week, Esther Kimani founder of FarmerLifeLine Technologies in Kenya and Mark Musinguzi founder of Hya Bioplastics in Uganda each received a US$50,000 grand prize at the African Green Revolution Forum’s (AGRF) at its Gala Dinner and Africa Food Prize Awards Ceremony attended by H.E. President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and a host of other African heads of state, dignitaries, and esteemed food systems experts from across the world.
With 12 top-class finalists in this year’s GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition, four additional Impact Awards winners were merited and will receive US$2,500: Eloge Niyomwungere, founder of Best Food Solution in Burundi, Nancy Iraba co-founder of Healthy Seaweed Company in Tanzania, Noël N’guessan co-founder of LONO in Côte d’Ivoire, and Seynabou Dieng, co-founder of Maya Sarl in Senegal.
“These young entrepreneurs are the in the midst of a food revolution. Their ventures are making a positive impact on their communities, their environment, and the local economy,” remarked Ms. Fernanda Lopes, Executive Vice President for Asia & Africa, Yara International, who awarded the winners on behalf of the Generation Africa co-founders.
Emerging victorious among the women agripreneurs, Esther Kimani and her company FarmerLifeLine Technologies invented a device that helps Kenyan farmers to get ahead of pests and pathogens with a proprietary disease detection device that leverages solar-powered cameras, Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning.
Among the men, grand prize winner Mark Musinguzi of Hya Bioplastics wants to lead Africa in sustainable food packaging with an innovative biodegradable product solution that provides a cost competitive alternative to petroleum-based plastic packaging.
Generation Africa co-founder Svein Tore Holsether, CEO and President of Yara International, delivered keynote remarks at the final pitching contest to thank the finalists for their visionary work, remarking: “Once again, I am so impressed with the finalists. They are all truly inspiring and I see them as leaders and role models in a world that so desperately needs that kind of drive and dedication to solve the staggering global challenges we are faced with.”
AGRF Chair Emeritus Strive Masiyiwa, Generation Africa co-founder and Executive Chairman of Econet and Cassava Technologies, joined Holsether via video message to motivate the contestants to use their entrepreneurial spirit for positive impact: “From amongst you, are the very people who are going to save our continent and ensure that millions of people do not starve, ensure that millions of other people will be able to overcome the challenges created by climate change. […] The true winners are not going to be because you got a prize, but because you were inspired and encouraged to go on to do greater things with your entrepreneurial venture, and that you reached out where the need was greatest, and the help was least,” Masiyiwa said in a heartfelt appeal.
Embodying the spirit of Masiyiwa’s message, Generation Africa also recognized four Impact Award Winners for each venture’s potential to empower communities and protect the environment.
For Senegalese Seynabou Dieng, the company she co-founded, Maya, is much more than a food processing company. By partnering with small-scale local farmers in Mali, this 80% women-staffed company gets the best local ingredients to manufacture their proudly African sauces, spices, mixes, and dried fruits.
Nancy Iraba founded Healthy Seaweed Company to boost the livelihoods for women seaweed farmers in Zanzibar and to bring the health benefits of seaweed home through local value-addition and the promotion of seaweed as a sustainable and highly nutritious food source.
Noël N’guessan of LONO co-founded his business to focus on healthy soil. One of its products, KubeKo, helps farmers in Côte d’Ivoire to unlock value from their waste. This easy-to-use biogas composting system generates 2hrs of cooking gas and 50l of liquid fertilizer from 5kg of organic waste per day.
Eloge Niyomwungere and his business Best Food Solution processes chillies into oil, powder, and dried chillies for local and export markets. He founded his company to revitalise Burundi’s chilli industry by supporting smallholder farmers with quality inputs and guaranteed offset. They even manufacture an organic chilli-based pesticide to protect yields.
Marking the first in-person GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition since 2019, the twelve finalists were elated for the post-pandemic opportunity to build relationships with a global complement of delegates attending the 2022 AGRF summit. They enjoyed facilitated participation at the AGRF Agribusiness Deal Room where they could build face-to-face trust with future partners, investors, and clients. Corteva Agriscience, one of Generation Africa’s co-founders, sponsored the finalists in their travels to the live event.
“By bringing them to Africa’s biggest agriculture summit we hope to catalyse relationships between these youth agripreneurs and global leaders in the industry. The GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize, and the networks and connections that come with it, is designed to empower the youth generation to scale their impact-driven agrifood businesses in the fight for a sustainable, African food system. It is wonderful to see this powerful platform back in action,” said Barbra Muzata, Head of Corporate Communications and Brand at Corteva Agriscience.
The fourth annual GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize reached nearly six million people during the entry window from 19 April to 6 June 2022. Applications streamed in from 45 African countries with 10 countries represented amongst the Top 12 finalists.
“GoGettaz has grown into the biggest, youth-focussed, agripreneurship competition in Africa. Our entries are becoming more diverse every year,” said Dickson Naftali, Head of Generation Africa. “The GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize was conceived to spread a message of hope and opportunity in the agrifood sector. Seeing more youth with truly innovate solutions, building companies that create jobs in the food system, makes me really proud. They hold the future of our continent in their hands.”
The 2022 Gogettaz Agripreneur Prize Judging Panel
George Apaka, Agriculture Sector Lead at the Mastercard Foundation
Barbra Muzata, Head of Corporate Communications and Brand at Corteva Agriscience, Africa and the Middle East
Edson Mpyisi, Chief Financial Economist and Coordinator of the ENABLE Youth Programme at the African Development Bank.
Ellen Cathrine Rasmussen, Executive Vice President of Scalable Enterprises at Norfund
Zvichapera Katiyo, Group CEO of Delta Philanthropies
Jane Lowicki-Zucca, Senior Youth Advisor at USAID
Temi Adegoroye, Managing partner at Sahel Consulting
Jean Muthamia-Mwenda, Global Lead for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship at SNV Netherlands
Dent Agrisystems empowers poor urban households in Ghana with its environmentally sustainable Aquaponics Hub. Its innovative solar-powered, IoT-integrated system makes it easy for anyone to farm fish and grow hydroponic vegetables.
FarmerLifeLine invented a device that helps Kenyan farmers get ahead of pests and pathogens with a proprietary disease detection device that leverages solar-powered cameras, Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning.
Nancy Iraba, Healthy Seaweed Company, Tanzania:
https://HealthySeaweedCafe.co.tz
Healthy Seaweed Company is boosting the livelihoods for women seaweed farmers in Zanzibar and bringing the health benefits of seaweed home through local value-addition and the promotion of seaweed products as a sustainable food source.
Maya is much more than a food processing company. By partnering with small-scale local farmers in Mali, this 80% women-staffed company gets the best local ingredients to manufacture proudly African sauces, spices, mixes, and dried fruits.
Pure and Just Food is all about climate-smart agro-processing that creates sustainable jobs, raises incomes, and protects the environment. They process and package dried fruit for Ghanaian and international markets.
Zima Healthy processes the pulp and seeds of organic pumpkins into healthy snacks, food ingredients, cooking oil and cosmetics. They employ youth and source their pumpkins from women and youth farmers in Rwanda.
Kepya is an agribusiness innovation hub with a network of rural shops and an online e-commerce platform. Kepya is improving rural livelihoods by bringing agricultural services and products to smallholder farmers across Angola.
Best Food Solution processes chillies into oil, powder, and dried chillies for local and export markets. They are revitalising Burundi’s chilli industry by supporting smallholder farmers with quality inputs and guaranteed offset.
Fidena Agri converts banana peels and eggshells into Eggo Farm, a low-cost organic fertilizer that gives crops the nutrients they need to boost yields by up to 45%. Its helping Uganda’s smallholder farmers to increase their profits.
Hya Bioplastics wants to lead Africa in sustainable, biodegradable food packaging. Its innovative business upcycles wasted agricultural fibres and casava starch into cost-competitive containers and fruit trays to replace plastic food packaging in Uganda.
LONO designed an innovative system that helps farmers in Côte d’Ivoire to unlock value from organic waste with KubeKo. This easy-to-use biogas composting system generates 2hrs of cooking gas and 50l of liquid fertilizer from 5kg of organic waste per day.
Solaristique is a recycling company that is tackling Nigeria’s food waste problem with an innovative solution that repurposes old freezers into a range of low-cost, hyper-efficient, solar-powered cold storage units for off-grid use.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Generation Africa.
With PCS, ports can dynamically allocate resources, adjust workflows, and reprioritize cargo flows using real-time data and coordinated processes
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 19, 2026/APO Group/ —By Alioune Ciss, Chief Executive Officer, Webb Fontaine (https://WebbFontaine.com).
When global trade flows normally, Port Community Systems (PCS) are often viewed as efficiency tools. They digitize paperwork, connect stakeholders, reduce delays, and improve visibility across port ecosystems. However, the true impact and strategic importance of PCS become most apparent when a crisis hits.
Whether caused by geopolitical conflict, canal restrictions, rerouted shipping lanes, cyber risk, labor disruption, or sudden regulatory shifts, modern supply chain shocks remind us that ports without strong digital coordination struggle to adapt, whereas ports with robust PCS infrastructure are better positioned to keep cargo moving. In today’s environment, PCS has become a critical infrastructure.
Disruption is not an exception anymore
Global maritime trade has entered a more volatile era where disruption is structural. Let’s review the recent events to understand the scale of impact:
Around 2,000 ships were reportedly stranded during the recent Strait of Hormuz (https://apo-opa.co/4dii0lb) crisis.
The Red Sea crisis (https://apo-opa.co/4dz5gFA) led to more than 190 attacks on vessels by late 2024, forcing widespread rerouting and increasing transit times by up to two weeks.
The Suez-linked corridor (https://apo-opa.co/4dz5gFA), which carries roughly 10–12% of global maritime trade, experienced sharp volume declines during the disruption.
Supply chains across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe faced cascading effects, including congestion, cost increases, and schedule instability.
At the same time, the global port industry itself is undergoing rapid transformation. According to the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH), ports are accelerating digitalization and strengthening resilience capabilities in response to geopolitical and operational uncertainty. This is the new reality: routes shift, volumes spike, and conditions change faster than traditional systems can handle.
Why PCS matters most during a crisis
When vessel schedules collapse, or cargo volumes suddenly spike, physical infrastructure alone is not enough. Cranes, berths, gates and yards also need coordination. That is where PCS becomes the backbone of resilience.
A PCS is not just a digital tool; rather, it’s a shared operational layer. It connects shipping lines, terminals, customs, freight forwarders, transport operators, and authorities through a single data environment, enabling synchronized decision-making across the ecosystem.
Instead of exchanges through emails, phone calls, Excel files, or siloed systems that generate delays and errors, the PCS enables seamless and real-time coordination.
1. Real-time visibility across the ecosystem
When vessels are delayed or rerouted, fragmented communication becomes a liability.
PCS enables real-time visibility across:
vessel arrivals and berth planning
cargo status and documentation
customs readiness and inspections
gate operations and inland logistics
Instead of fragmented updates, stakeholders operate from a shared, trusted data environment.
When shipping lanes shift overnight, policies change, and when uncertainty increases, the strongest ports are the ones that are the most ‘connected’
In a crisis, the speed of information becomes the speed of recovery.
Without digital coordination, responses are reactive and slow.
With PCS, ports can dynamically allocate resources, adjust workflows, and reprioritize cargo flows using real-time data and coordinated processes.
3. Customs and border continuity
Cargo cannot move if border agencies cannot move.
According to joint guidance from the World Customs Organization (WCO) and International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH), interoperability between Customs systems and PCS is essential for coordinated border management, risk control, and secure data exchange (https://apo-opa.co/3PLcs9P).
In crisis conditions, this becomes critical. Governments must introduce new controls, risk filters, or emergency procedures quickly, without disrupting trade flows. PCS enables this balance.
4. Trust and transparency for the market
Importers, exporters, and carriers can tolerate disruption more than uncertainty. What they need is visibility.
PCS provides transparency across the supply chain, allowing stakeholders to track cargo status, anticipate delays, and plan accordingly. This transparency builds trust and reduces the systemic risk of panic-driven inefficiencies.
Operational resilience is the key
As we all know, the classic PCS discussions focus on key KPIs such as:
reduced turnaround time
fewer documents
lower administrative cost
faster truck processing
But today, the most important KPI is “readiness”: If a major trade corridor shifts tomorrow, can your port ecosystem adapt in real time?
To answer “Yes” to this question, a future-ready PCS should include:
real-time event management
integrated stakeholder communication
predictive congestion alerts
interoperability with customs and regulatory systems
scalable architecture for demand spikes
“For years, ‘efficiency’ was key when it comes to PCS. However, today, the key is ‘resilience’… When shipping lanes shift overnight, policies change, and when uncertainty increases, the strongest ports are the ones that are the most ‘connected’… Therefore, we should treat PCS as a crisis backbone of trade, not an IT efficiency initiative. [Alioune Ciss, CEO, Webb Fontaine]
The Next Evolution: Intelligent PCS
PCS is now entering a new phase. Next-generation systems are evolving into data-driven platforms that support predictive analytics, AI-enabled decision-making, and proactive risk management (https://apo-opa.co/4eQ93Rg).
In other words, today, ports need systems that help orchestrate responses. Solutions such as Webb Ports (https://apo-opa.co/42F3gqq) from Webb Fontaine reflect this shift. By connecting all port stakeholders through a unified platform, anticipating congestion before it happens, simulating operational scenarios, and optimizing resource allocation dynamically, we enable faster coordination, better visibility and more agile responses when disruptions occur.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Webb Fontaine.
African Mining Week 2026 will showcase lucrative investment, partnership, and knowledge-exchange opportunities across Africa’s gold downstream sector, as Rand Refinery intensifies its investment and expansion strategy across the continent
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 19, 2026/APO Group/ –Amid a strategy to expand from a South Africa-focused refiner into a pan-African downstream leader, Rand Refinery has joined African Mining Week (AMW), an Influential African Mining Conference, scheduled for October 14-16, 2026 in Cape Town, as a silver sponsor.
Rand Refinery’s participation reflects a broader strategic alignment between the company’s expansion agenda and AMW’s focus on supporting and enabling local beneficiation and promoting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) responsible sourcing frameworks.
In terms of volumes, the latest market information indicates that Africa produces 1000tpa of mined gold (more than any other continent), with large-scale mining (LSM) and ASM being almost evenly balanced (500tpa production each). On its current trajectory, African ASM volumes are expected to eclipse those of LSM.
The focus on ASM as a transformational imperative is valid, and Rand Refinery is an active participant in the precious metals supply chain, working alongside other upstream and downstream actors to ensure that the communities and countries with gold resources benefit in a sustainable manner.
Under the theme Mining the Future: Unearthing Africa’s Full Mineral Value Chain, AMW 2026 offers a critical interface between refiners, miners, regulators, and financial institutions, as African countries intensify efforts to capture more value from responsible mineral production.
A key pillar of Rand Refinery’s 2026 strategy is its expansion into high-growth gold markets beyond South Africa. In January 2026, the company partnered with Ghana’s Gold Coast Refinery (GCR) to support the Ghana Gold Board to locally refine artisanal and small-scale (ASM) gold and elevate responsible sourcing standards in West Africa. The partnership also positions Rand Refinery in a rapidly growing and historically fragmented supply segment: ASM operations, enabling the company to enhance traceability and strengthen compliance with global standards for ethical sourcing and anti-money laundering.
The partnership potentially allows the monetization of ASM supply streams in the formal gold ecosystem, complementing Rand Refinery’s established role in refining output from responsible large-scale producers. AMW 2026 represents a timely platform for the company to provide an update on its projects and contribution to Africa’s gold sector.
As demand for regional refining capacity expands, along with central bank buying programs, companies such as Rand Refinery will be crucial.
Central bank gold purchases are projected to average around 585 tons per quarter in 2026, underscoring sustained global demand. In Africa, gold now accounts for approximately 17% of total reserves – up from less than 10% in 2022–2023 – while physical holdings increased from 663 tons in 2022 to an estimated 738 tons in 2025.
This upward trajectory is driving demand for trusted refining and value addition services, positioning Rand Refinery as a key partner in the region. Against this backdrop, AMW provides a strategic platform for central banks and gold buyers to engage directly with one of the world’s largest integrated single-site precious metals refining and smelting complexes and strengthen regional beneficiation and national reserve strategies.
At AMW, Rand Refinery executives will participate in panel discussions and networking sessions, engaging stakeholders on partnership opportunities that support a more integrated, transparent and value-driven African gold ecosystem.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.
ACCRA, Ghana, May 19, 2026/APO Group/ –The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) (https://Meltwater.org), has opened applications for the second edition of the MEST AI Startup Program, a fully-funded, immersive experience designed to equip Africa’s most promising AI entrepreneurs with the technical, business, product, and leadership skills to build and scale globally competitive AI startups.
Over a seven-month training phase, the MEST AI Startup program will provide founders with hands-on instruction, technical mentorship, and business coaching from global experts to develop AI-powered solutions. The top startups will then advance to a four-month incubation period to refine products, sharpen go-to-market strategies, and secure market traction. At the end of incubation, startups have the opportunity to pitch for pre-seed investment of up to $100,000 and join the MEST Portfolio.
We are excited to support the next generation of African AI founders through training delivered by some of the most knowledgeable experts in the industry
The inaugural cohort brought together founders from seven African countries who are already building transformative AI solutions across industries. Building on the momentum of the first edition, the 2027 intake reflects MEST Africa’s continued commitment to ensuring African entrepreneurs play a defining role in the future of artificial intelligence.
According to Emily Fiagbedzi, AI Startup Program Director, the urgency of investing in African AI talent has never been greater.
“AI technology is advancing at an extraordinary pace, and meaningful participation in the global AI economy requires more than access to tools, it requires the ability to build,” she said. “This program is designed to help talented African founders develop solutions to real challenges while positioning them to compete globally. We are excited to support the next generation of African AI founders through training delivered by some of the most knowledgeable experts in the industry from organizations including OpenAI, Perplexity, Google, and Meltwater”
For the 2027 intake, the program is open to African founders based in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Kenya aged 21–35 with software development experience who want to start their own AI startup.
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