The Africa Netprenuer Prize Initiative (ANPI) is an initiative of the Jack Ma Foundation flagship entrepreneur program in Africa. This was set up in 2017 after Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group visited the continent and was inspired by the entrepreneurial energy and potential of the youths he met with. Founded with the ultimate goal of awarding $10 million to 100 African entrepreneurs over the course of 10 years, the Africa Netprenuer Prize Initiative (ANPI) held its inaugural event this year in Accra, Ghana.
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Last weekend, 10 African startups made it to the final round of the competition where they pitched to Strive Masiyiwa (founder and chairman, Econet Wireless), Jack Ma (founder, Alibaba Group), Ibukun Awosika (chairperson, First Bank of Nigeria), and Joe Tsai (executive vice-chairman, Alibaba Group) for $1 million total grant prize money.
At the end of the competition, Nigerian medical logistics startup emerged the top and the Founder won the award of emerging Africa Business Hero. Lifebank was awarded $250,000 for coming first while Nawah Scientific, an Egypt-based scientific research centre, came in second winning $150,000 and Water Access Rwanda, a startup that provides affordable, reliable and safe water in Rwanda won $100,000 from the total grant prize.
The remaining $500,000 was distributed amongst the 7 other finalist – Nigeria’s Thrive Agric, Nigeria’s DrugStoc, Nigeria’s Black Swan Tech Ltd, Rwanda’s Uzuri K&Y, Liberia’s J-Palm, Ivory Coast’s Afrikrea and Egypt’s Mumm.
Lifebank
Inspired by the near-death experience of a new mother privileged to have good medical care, Lifebank is a smart blood system that is saving lives in Lagos by speeding up blood donations and deliveries to hospitals. Using technology, Lifebank creates an e-health app that connects blood banks with hospitals in Lagos while also running blood drives that connect potential donors to blood banks for voluntary blood donation. It is committed with a mission to save millions of lives across Africa in 20 years through providing access to essential health care products to hospitals, has over and over again continued to set the mark for impact done by startups. Lifebank provides pints of blood, oxygen canisters, bag of platelets and plasma, and vial of vaccine to hospitals to ensure that at least one more life is saved from the cold clutch of death.
Since inception in 2016, they have gone on to serve over 800 hospitals, moved over 17,000 products and saved over 5000 lives through their services.
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New development
Apart from winning the emerging Africa Business Hero at the inaugural grand finale of the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative, Lifebank also announced its new addition to its method of transportation – drone delivery. This signals more reach to remote areas in Africa that are otherwise inaccessible to common modes of transportation.
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Featured Image Source: The Guardian NG
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