Five African founders have been named finalists for JumpShot 2026, a pan-African startup acceleration program supported by the National Basketball Players Association Foundation, UM6P’s StartGate and UM6P Global Hubs.
The program, which focuses on agricultural distribution, plastic recycling, university graduate tracking, pharmacy infrastructure and education finance, offers $160,000 in equity-free prizes and a spot at the United Nations General Assembly for the top winner.
The five finalists, drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana, are now in the midst of an intensive three-day acceleration sprint at StartGate, the startup campus of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco, one of Africa’s leading research institutions and the engine behind the continent’s fastest-growing entrepreneurship ecosystem, backed by the OCP Group, the world’s largest phosphate producer.
Meet the Six Finalists
They are a precise cross-section of the solutions Africa needs most right now.
Winnie Wambugu is CEO of Nakuru Tubers in Kenya. Her company is a digital last-mile agricultural distribution network connecting smallholder farmers to verified inputs, climate-smart seeds and agronomic support across Africa.
Munyasa Hellen is Founder and Managing Director of Helton Traders Limited in Uganda. She is transforming plastic bottle waste into affordable polyester sewing threads for the textile industry and creating green jobs for women and youth in the process.
Ada Peter is a Professor of Digital Infrastructure and International Security and founder of Ribara Analytica in Nigeria. Ribara is the infrastructure layer that helps African universities prove and improve graduate outcomes.
Adeola Ayoola is Co-founder and CEO of Famasi in Nigeria. Famasi is building pharmacy infrastructure for emerging markets, a continent that imports 70 to 90 percent of its medicines and has almost no digital pharmacy backbone.
Abiola Metilelu is CEO of PressPayNg, also in Nigeria. PressPayNg is building the financial infrastructure for smarter education payments, credit access and funding distribution across Africa.
Rose Noah is CEO of West African Feeds Ltd in Ghana. West African Feeds Ltd is transforming organic waste into sustainable insect-based feed through KemProtein. Her innovative circular economy model reduces waste, lowers environmental impact and provides affordable, nutritious feed solutions for Africa’s growing food system.
The range of sectors represented in this cohort is not accidental. It is a precise map of where Africa’s most critical structural gaps intersect with its most commercially viable entrepreneurial solutions.
What JumpShot Actually Offers
JumpShot is a pan-African entrepreneurship program designed to identify, support and accelerate high-potential startups solving critical social and environmental challenges across the continent.
Through a competitive selection process, promising founders gain access to a three-month virtual accelerator, strategic mentorship, exposure to industry leaders and connections to resources that can strengthen their business models and growth pathways.
With $160,000 in equity-free cash prizes awarded to six winners, JumpShot gives African founders a platform to scale their impact and take their ventures to the next level. The top winner earns a place at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2026 alongside a broader US exposure experience with the NBPA and UM6P Global Hubs.
The NBA’s Bet on Africa
The NBPA Foundation’s involvement is not a celebrity endorsement operation. It is a sustained institutional commitment rooted in the legacy of African-born NBA pioneers from Hakeem Olajuwon to the late Dikembe Mutombo and the conviction that the players’ platform carries real obligation beyond the court.
“We are excited to bring this One Court Africa experience to life,” said Erika Swilley, Executive Director of the NBPA Foundation. “From the classroom sessions to the case study analyses, this experience has demonstrated our players’ commitment to long-term social impact in their own communities and around the world.
Washington Wizards guard Malcolm Brogdon, who participated in the One Court Africa programme at UM6P, captured the spirit of the initiative plainly:
“I think it’s a great opportunity to come here and learn about investing in the continent, to understand the challenges it faces, and how you can make an impact if that’s something you’re passionate about. The way the event was put together and thoughtfully curated supports that.”
The context behind the programme’s design is sobering in its urgency. Africa is home to the world’s youngest population, with a median age of just 19.7 years, with 60 percent of the continent’s 1.4 billion people under the age of 25.
The continent needs to create approximately 20 million new jobs per year through 2030 to absorb its growing working-age population, according to the African Development Bank. Entrepreneurs like the five JumpShot finalists are not fringe players in that equation. They are the engine.
The UM6P and OCP Backbone
UM6P itself, founded by Morocco’s OCP Group, which reported revenues of $9.3 billion in 2023 and controls approximately 70 percent of the world’s known phosphate reserves, is not a conventional academic partner.
It is the continent’s most ambitious attempt to build a research-led, entrepreneurship-driven university ecosystem that can compete globally. StartGate, its startup campus, has supported hundreds of African ventures across agritech, fintech, healthtech and edtech since its founding, operating through a model that combines mentorship, equity-free funding and access to UM6P’s vast research and industry network.
The JumpShot finalists will complete their three-day acceleration programme and advance toward the final pitch competition, where six winners will share the $160,000 equity-free prize pool.
Whatever the outcome, five African founders who walked into StartGate’s campus this week represent something the continent’s investors, policymakers and development institutions should be paying very close attention to (a generation that is not waiting for the infrastructure to be built for them).
They are building it themselves.
