Nigerian multi-crop processor comes top 10 in Innovation Prize for Africa

Sulaiman Bolarinde Famro from Nigeria was selected as a top 10 finalist in the 2014 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), which drew over 700 entries from across Africa. His innovation, the Farmking Multi-Crop Processor, is a machine used in the processing of different types of tubers to create a “paste” from the tubers that can be used to make food such as fufu, and having starch as a by-product.

Traditionally, the starch is thrown away as waste, but the Farmking allows the collection of this starch that can then be sold to the pharmaceutical industry for a number of industrial processes. This greatly increases farming outputs and revenues for farmers while saving the environment from the degradation that occurs with improper disposal of the starch.

According to Brian Sibanda of Weber Shandwick, a South African-based consulting firm, the Farmking Multi-Crop Processor’ impact on the population is that it reduces an operation that normally lasts three to four days into a five-minute process.

The top 10 African innovators are acclaimed to have succeeded in creating practical solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable challenges.

Sulaiman Bolarinde Famro’s innovation is known as a Farmking Mobile Multi-crop Processor, which uses centrifugal forces to process cassava, sweet potatoes, soy, shea-nuts, grains and cereals. It helps to separate the tubers from liquid, particles and impurities/toxic elements. The extractor is designed to replace the present crude fermentation and pressing technology, which is extremely slow and wasteful and offers limited output and profitability.

Other finalists are Ashley Uys from South Africa with the OculusID Impairment Screening, Daniel Gitau Thairu from Kenya with the Domestic Waste Biogas System, Elise Rasel Cloete from South Africa with the GMP Traceability Management Software CC, Joshua Okello from Kenya with the WinSenga, Logou Minsob from Togo with the Foufoumix, Nicolaas Duneas from South Africa with the Altis Osteogenic Bone Matrix (Altis OBM™), Maman Abdou Kane from Niger with the Horticultural tele irrigation, Melesse Temesgen from Ethiopia with the Aybar BBM and Viness Pillay from South Africa with the WaferMatTM.

The 2014 Innovation Prize for Africa was however won by Nicolaas Duneas and the partner, Nuno Peres, from South Africa as the winners of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2014. The announcement was made during an Awards ceremony hosted by the African Innovation Foundation in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria where Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and co-ordinating minister, delivered the keynote speech. The winners will receive $100,000 for their research, which is an innovative product for the treatment of bone injuries and voids through the use of a regenerative biological implant.

The top 10 were selected from about 700 applications from 42 countries. Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, founder of the African Innovation Foundation and the IPA said, “This year’s Innovation Prize for Africa winners showcase that Africans can find solutions to African challenges,” “We encourage partners from both the public and the private sectors to coherently work together to support African innovation.”

The call for applications for IPA 2015 will be announced in July 2014. For detailed information will be available at the Innovation Prize for Africa website.

Founded by the African Innovation Foundation, the IPA is focused on building Africa’s capacity by investing in home-grown innovation. The Prize mobilises leaders from all sectors – private sector, donors and government – to promote and invest in African development through innovation. The foundation believes that the best solutions to the challenges Africans face on a daily basis can and will come from Africans themselves.