Rashidat Okunlade Writes

The Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) has unveiled a pivotal Mentorship Programme tailored for young female students at the Federal College of Education, Technical (FCET), Gusau, Zamfara State today.

This initiative, which was birthed and draws inspiration from the principles highlighted at the 2022 UN Women Convention on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, USA, is centred around “Innovation, technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

Dr. Ubon Udoh, Managing Director/CEO of ASR Africa, said, ” Our commitment to education at ASR Africa goes beyond providing infrastructure and financial support, but also involves significant technical assistance. Our collaboration with the management and staff of FCET Gusau is one such partnership. I enjoin the young ladies of the college to fully embrace this opportunity and leverage it to become valuable contributors to their communities.” “With the launch of this program, ASR Africa is proud to stand at the forefront of advancing the UN Women’s mission by striving to bridge the digital divide for Nigerian women and girls,” he added.

In his response, Prof. Umar Bello, Provost of FCET Gusau, expressed profound gratitude to ASR Africa’s Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, for exceeding their initial request for infrastructural assistance to include technical assistance which has immense benefits for the school. He also acknowledged the partners who are collaborating with ASR Africa in this endeavour.

This ASR Africa mentorship program seeks to address several hurdles that young women in STEM fields encounter, such as the scarcity of female role models, limited opportunities for mentoring and sponsorship, and deep-rooted cultural and societal biases. The program is expected to bolster the number of female students opting for careers in STEM fields, enhancing their academic performance and preparing them for future career prospects.

The launch attracted attention and participation from numerous women’s organisations from the United Nations and across the continent of Africa, some of whom engaged the students through enlightening presentations and a thought-provoking Q&A session.

ASR Africa, established in 2021 by African industrialist, philanthropist, and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, is devoted to providing sustainable, impact-based indigenous solutions to urgent developmental issues in health, education, and social development across Africa, via its annual USD100million Africa Fund for Sustainable Development and Renewal.

10 startup companies will enter a 7-month equity-free mentorship program

Rashidat Okunlade Writes

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has announced the selection of 10 startups to participate in the inaugural Qualcomm Make in Africa startup mentorship program, as part of the Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform announced in December 2022.

These startups are developing innovative products in clean energy, agricultural technology, computing for education, geospatial predictive analysis, medical technologies, and innovations utilizing electric vehicles. Several startups also feature women in prominent leadership roles.

The startups, based in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda, were selected from a pool of 550+ applicants from 34 African countries. They were carefully selected by a global jury based on a variety of qualifications including technical capabilities, business factors, and potential for innovation and intellectual property generation. The Qualcomm Make In Africa startups will receive equity-free mentorship in business planning, engineering, intellectual property protection, and the application of advanced connectivity, sensing, AI/ML and other processing technologies for innovative end-to-end systems solutions. The program is the first of its kind in Africa and is designed to add to the continued growth of the continent’s technology startup ecosystem.

The shortlisted companies and their technology solutions are (sorted by alphabetical order):

• Ecorich Solutions – patented organic composting in Kenya
• Fixbot – Vehicle diagnostics and inspection via OBD dongle in Nigeria
• Karaa – e-Bike tracking, charging, retrofit, and rentals in Uganda
• Maotronics Systems Limited – IOT-enabled precision agriculture in Nigeria
• Microfuse – Affordable plugin computers for the education sector in Uganda
• Neural Labs Africa Ltd – Deep learning and computer vision for healthcare diagnosis in Kenya and Senegal
• OneTouch Diagnostics – Diabetes patch and monitoring system in Nigeria
• QuadLoop – Leveraging e-waste for solar e-Lanterns and battery storage in Nigeria.
• SLS Energy – Recycled lead-cell battery storage banks in Rwanda
• SolarTaxi – Electric vehicle (EV) taxi and fleet management in Ghana

Announced in December 2022, Qualcomm Make in Africa will provide 1:1 mentorship for the shortlisted companies with Qualcomm leaders on a regular cadence to guide startups to product realization, as well as provide masterclasses on product management, pitch clinic, IPR, and hardware architecture. The program will culminate in a finale demo day in December 2023, connecting startups with various industry leaders, venture capitalists, investors, and other accelerators.

“I’d like to applaud and congratulate these 10 startups for their innovative solutions,” said Sudeepto Roy, Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm Incorporated. “I am beyond excited to hear about their respective problem domains and innovative solutions. They have applied their talents and ingenuity to address Africa’s present-day needs in areas of reliable access to clean energy, precision agriculture to conserve water and other resources, adaptations of electric transportation for many last-mile needs, using AI and other innovations for accelerating disease pathology and treatment, and addressing energy efficient, affordable computing for the education market. Over the next few months, we will mentor them in areas of business development, technology applications and intellectual property law. We are honored to be able to participate in their entrepreneurial journey and their future impact in Africa.”

“As part of our new Africa Innovation Platform, the Qualcomm Make in Africa mentorship program is one of many initiatives we are working on in close collaboration with government and industry stakeholders in Africa, to help position African entrepreneurs and researchers to service markets throughout the continent and realize their global ambitions. We believe that startups based in Africa are best placed to identify uniquely African problems that can be solved through end-to-end systems solutions and new business models,” said Elizabeth Migwalla, Vice President and Head of Government Affairs (Middle East and Africa), Qualcomm International, Inc. “We congratulate the shortlisted companies and look forward to a fruitful collaboration for innovation in the coming months.”

Know More About Qualcomm: Qualcomm is enabling a world where everyone and everything can be intelligently connected. Our one technology roadmap allows us to efficiently scale the technologies that launched the mobile revolution – including advanced connectivity, high-performance, low-power computing, on-device intelligence, and more – to the next generation of connected smart devices across industries. Innovations from Qualcomm and our family of Snapdragon platforms will help enable cloud-edge convergence, transform industries, accelerate the digital economy, and revolutionize how we experience the world, for the greater good.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research, and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business.

Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

Rashidat Olushola Okunlade Writes

Digital Pay Expo has announced the 23rd edition of the Digital Pay Expo with the theme “The Future Is Contactless,” scheduled to hold on the 7^th and 8^th of June 2023, by 10 a.m., as a physical event at the Eko Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.

The event will also be hosted virtually on Zoom to ensure participants can connect from all over the world, as usual.

Over the last few years, the technological developments in how people pay for goods and services have changed dramatically. In the wake of this advancement ‘Contactless Payment’ was born.

The convenience of contactless payment technology has made it an easy way to make purchases without dealing with the hassle of pulling out cash.

With the advent of COVID-19, the reliance on contactless payment solutions has become even more important over the past 24 months. Therefore, it has become imperative to have conversations around this trend and to take a look at its adoption for the future of payments.

Digital Pay Expo is a platform created for key players, collaborators, and experts in the payment industry to engage with one another. The conference and exhibition are intended to be a hybrid event with an emphasis on physical gathering. It will be synchronised virtually to allow the greatest impact possible for the mixed audience expected online and onsite.

The expected outcome of this conference and exhibition is to enlighten delegates on the need to quickly adopt the concept of contactless payments and better prepare them on how to transition into this innovation space while creating a positive mindset.

Attendance for this event is free but subject to registration. Log on to https://bit.ly/digitalpayexpo2023 to register.

For more inquiries go to;  https://digitalpayexpo.com/