Botswana Innovation Hub in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) will host the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2016 in Gaborone from 22nd to 23rd June, 2016.
IPA is a landmark program of the AIF, which works to increase the prosperity of Africans by catalyzing the innovation spirit in Africa. AIF offers several avenues of opportunity for local, national, regional and international growth and exposure to Africa’s next cadre of innovators.
The IPA is an annual award ceremony that brings together the African community of problem solvers and celebrates Africa’s ingenuity. IPA recognizes, rewards and mobilize for African innovators through promoting home-grown, market-driven solutions addressing intractable challenges in agriculture, health and well-being, manufacturing and service industry, ICTs and environment, energy and water.
This year, IPA celebrates its 5 year milestone in helping to shape the innovation landscape in Africa. The theme for this year’s award ceremony is ‘Made in Africa,’ based on the belief that Africa can posit itself on the world map through self-innovation, carving its own success story of growth economies and creating incentives to commercialize and scale up home-grown innovations.
The ‘Made in Africa’ theme heralds a message of enterprise and prosperity for African innovators, as IPA encourages more Africans, especially young people and women to catalyze transformation through innovation – not only in their lives – but for the broader community and their respective economies. The theme promises to be ground-breaking, extending beyond the awards ceremony by providing an unprecedented platform for African innovators and innovation enablers to network, share knowledge, explore business opportunities and boost collaboration.
The public is invited to the IPA exhibition that will showcase local and continental innovations at the Botswana Innovation Hub Science and Technology Park in Block 8, Gaborone.
