Yango Group’s Pan-African Fellowship has highlighted the depth of African technology talent while giving young innovators an opportunity to develop solutions to practical challenges across the continent.
The programme concluded in Abidjan this week, with 24 fellows from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia and Mozambique presenting projects developed over 12 weeks. They were selected from more than 600 applicants, showing the strong demand for programmes that connect African talent with mentorship, networks and practical opportunities.
“600 applications for 24 places doesn’t tell you Africa lacks talent, it tells you how much talent is waiting for structured access to mentorship and opportunity,” said Shashi Singh, Director of Operations for Yango Ride MEA and Asia. She said access to mentors, networks and opportunities to test ideas against real problems remains harder to find.
The application numbers reflect a wider trend. LINGUA Africa recently received more than 800 applications for 26 African language AI grants, highlighting the size of the continent’s emerging technology talent pool.
Six teams tackle African market challenges
The fellows worked in mixed-country teams and moved through problem research, solution design, business modelling and prototyping before presenting their final pitches.
Their projects focused heavily on challenges affecting informal economies and underserved communities. These included cashless payments for informal transport, digital financial identity for informal merchants, medicine supply visibility for community health workers, cross-border job matching, waste collection and recycling, and affordable water-quality testing for rural communities.
Africoded won the $4,500 top team prize for an AI-assisted platform connecting African job seekers with cross-border employment, remote work and career development.
Harambee came second and received $2,500 for a platform connecting households, waste collectors and recyclers.
Bloom placed third and received $1,500 for a cashless fare-collection system for informal public transport across East and West Africa.
The individual awards also recognised locally focused innovation. Fredrick Mwepu of Zambia won $1,500 for RoboCore Zambia, a robotics platform designed to make practical STEM education more affordable.
“Growing up, hands-on STEM tools were something I only saw in videos,” Mwepu said. He explained that RoboCore Zambia aims to help students access practical tools to build and experiment.
Meshack Kwame Nartey of Ghana received $1,000 as runner-up for Shuttle Smart Ghana, a real-time university shuttle tracking platform.
Oulimata Rose Dia won $1,000 for Best Technical/AI Contribution for Smart Bin Collection, a solar-powered system that monitors bin levels and transmits data over 2G.
The use of 2G reflects the need to build for infrastructure that is widely available rather than relying on more advanced networks.
From talent development to investment
The programme also included an AI for impact session led by Celina Lee, co-founder of data science platform Zindi, as well as pitch coaching and meetings with Yango leaders from several markets. In total, $12,000 was awarded.
Yango describes the fellowship as a talent pipeline rather than a direct funding programme. Its approach recognises that African markets have different infrastructure, consumer behaviour and local needs, making local knowledge important when developing businesses for the continent.
Yango also has a venture investment arm. Yango Ventures participated in Egyptian startup Fincart’s $2.8 million seed round in August alongside Launch Africa and Antler MENAP.
The combination of the fellowship and venture arm gives Yango a way to engage with emerging talent while also creating opportunities to support businesses beyond their early development stage.
