Famfa Oil Limited, Nigeria’s leading indigenous oil exploration, and production company collaborated with Futurize to co-fund the launch of its first annual Fuel Africa Innovation Programme which was organized in partnership with AstraZeneca and Microsoft from March 17th – March 25th 2022.
The programme which was also co-funded by Bristol Myers Squibb, virtually brough together hundreds of
students and recent alumni from twelve universities across seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for an
entrepreneurship bootcamp and innovation competition.
During the innovation competition, participants formed multi-disciplinary teams, received industry insights, mentorship, and hands-on training through workshops to generate solutions for early-stage business ventures.
At the end, the teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and were awarded pre-seed investment through cash prizes and opportunities to advance their careers.
Digital training is crucial to sustainable development, boosting entrepreneurship and job creation.
“By bridging the gap between education and the current labor markets, entrepreneurship programmes like
Fuel Africa can unlock the tremendous talent universities hold,” said Futurize CEO Rhea Singhla.
Participants had opportunities to network with peers and international experts to create a collaborative
ecosystem that can drive innovation to grow the African economy.
Fuel Africa 2022 bought together the brightest minds across universities in Sub-Saharan Africa to address
some of the continent’s most pressing challenges in healthcare, with impactful solutions while leveraging
the power of cross-collaboration and technology.
According to Rotimi Alakija, Famfa Oil Limited, the only way one can move forward is through innovation, and this can only be done by investing in fresh solutions to solve current problems.
This year’s two topic areas focused on creating solutions that will enable access to healthcare as well as
the management and early detection of Non-Communicable Diseases. The mission here was to equip young
entrepreneurs with the resources to build high-potential venture ideas and to contribute to sustainable
development globally.
Yacine Barro Bourgault, Enablement Lead: Africa Transformation Office at Microsoft, disclosed that
Microsoft, through the Africa Transformation Office, is committed to supporting education transformation
across Africa with access to learning tools, resources and technology.
Barbara Nel, African Cluster Country President at AstraZeneca pointed out that “Through A Catalyst
Network, AstraZeneca’s interconnected and dynamic global network of more than 20 health innovation
hubs, we are co-creating challenge-based solutions with and for patients”.
She said according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) are steadily increasing in prevalence in Africa, and they are predicted to overtake communicable diseases by the year 2030. “Over time, NCDs have grown to become the leading cause of death worldwide. These numbers demonstrate the urgency in acting on it.
By partnering with Futurize, we wanted to offer students in Africa exciting opportunities to connect and collaborate with a truly global network of expertise and experience, helping to accelerate innovation and ensure that more patients can get access to the latest health tech solutions,” She concluded.
