The winners, founders of BarefootLaw (Uganda), Farmerline (Ghana) and Kytabu (Kenya) were awarded on June 20th 2017 at a biennial award ceremony, in the presence of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium at the Royal Palace in Brussels. The Prize recognises the stand-out achievement of the African tech-entrepreneurs, who are driving social change across the continent. By empowering those at the heart of social enterprises to advance, the Prize endorses a new model of global development that views entrepreneurship and local leadership, rather than traditional aid, as the key to sustainable change. For the first time, the Prize will be awarded to three organisations to recognise the growing number of socially minded tech-entrepreneurs across the continent. All three organisations share the underlying principle of using simple technology to connect people with essential knowledge. Each tech-platform enables communities to access and share information in fundamental areas: education (Kytabu), legal rights (BarefootLaw) and agriculture (Farmerline). BarefootLaw is the first online legal service in East Africa. The organization offers free-of-charge services that help those who are in need, especially the most vulnerable, to understand and defend their basic rights. Farmerline connects over 200,000 farmers with market information, peers and larger organisations, while Kytabu is an innovative textbook content-leasing app for students. The app makes school-reading accessible to 11 million students in Kenya to break down the high rate of students currently without access to textbooks (1 in 10). The Prize includes an award of €75,000 for each organisation and access to a wide network of stakeholders who will support them as they grow. According to the Chair of the Prize Selection Committee, Koen Vervaeke, “expanding the Prize to recognise three winners instead of one is a reflection of the abundance of tech-entrepreneurs driving social change across the continent. Young entrepreneurs are changing the economic landscape on the continent. They represent the future, a future that is happening now. Illustrating this in three key sectors was the only way of doing justice to the diversity of this transformation.” In the words of Uganda-based BarefootLaw Founder, Gerald Abila, “I am humbled by this award and the recognition of BarefootLaw’s work. In 2012 we set out with the goal to demystify the law and empower people to understand their rights. The few legal practitioners in Uganda are based in the capital city, making it difficult for people both in urban and rural areas to access legal services.” “Our journey is just starting. With the money and mentorship offered through the Prize, we will be able to grow and support more people to protect themselves, their families and communities from legal wrongs.” Ghana-based Farmerline Co-founder Alloysius Attah said, “we are excited to grow and expand with the support of the African Development Prize. Agriculture is central to African economies. We see the impact that technology is having on local communities; our ambition is to connect even more smallholder farmers with direct access to global markets, information and finance. We are building the operating system for small-scale farmers in Africa. Hopefully, this will make them exponentially more successful.” For Kenya’s Tonee Ndungu, founder of Kytabu, “quality education is at the heart of human development. Many students miss out and are held back because they cannot afford books that are curriculum required. Our app changes that. We are the alternative to textbooks. It is solutions like this that will transform our communities and enable people to build more prosperous lives. We are proud to be a part of a new wave of development across the continent and looking forward to developing the platform further through the Prize.”
