Liquid Telecom, the leading
pan-African telecoms group, is proud to be the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology’s (MIT) official partner for the 2019Inclusive Innovation Challenge (IIC) in Africa.
Since 2016, the MIT’s
Inclusive Innovation Challenge (IIC) has challenged entrepreneurs
around the world to re-invent the way technology innovation is harnessed. This
year the challenge will take place on five continents: Africa, Asia, Europe,
Latin America, and the US and Canada. Liquid Telecom will serve as the IIC’s
outreach partner for Africa, where it will play an important role in recruiting
African entrepreneurs and innovators to participate in the challenge.
The 2019 IIC has four categories
focused on creating solutions to help people prosper in the era of automation.
These are technology access, financial inclusion, skills development and
opportunity matching, and income growth and job creation. Through its Innovation
Partnership initiative, Liquid Telecom will be encouraging African
based start-ups, innovators and technology companies to take part in the
various challenges. The IIC will award a total of $1.6 million this year
—including $250,000 to each of the four winning organisations.
“Liquid Telecom is looking forward to
working with MIT on delivering the IIC in Africa as it is aligned with our
mission to support innovation, using digital technology, across the continent. As an African company, greater inclusion in
both the creation and application of technology is fundamental to Liquid
Telecom’s DNA. We are happy to help IIC reach more entrepreneurs and innovators
across the continent,” said Liquid Telecom’s Group Chief Technology and
Innovation Officer Ben Roberts.
IIC Executive Producer, Devin Cook
sees a “revolution afoot” to create high-tech jobs and skills training that
bring people more fully into the digital age. “Our vision is an economy that
works for all,” she said. To achieve this, the IIC serves as a catalyst to
“accelerate entrepreneurs who are already making our vision a reality.” In
addition, the challenge wants “to drive a solutions-oriented conversation about
the future of work.”
Registration is open now and the
deadline for submissions in 9 May. Regional finalists will be announced 23 July
and winners will be recognised at regional celebrations. The challenge will
culminate with a Global Grand Prize Gala at MIT on 21 November 2019.
Since 2016, 3,000 organisations have
registered for the IIC from more than 100 nations. It has worked with more than
100 Global Outreach Partners, 500 judges, and drawn 3,300 event attendees.
There were 100 winners in last year’s
competition, awarded a total of $3.5 million, which developed solutions ranging
from agricultural climate apps for African farmers to training courses for US
healthcare workers and coding boot camps in India and the Middle East.
“We believe that inclusive innovation
– the use of technology to generate increased economic opportunity for moderate
and low income earners – is an imperative with a tight deadline,” said IDE
Director, Erik Brynjolfsson. “The question we should be asking isn’t ‘what is
technology going to do to our economy and society,’ but rather, ‘what will we
do with technology’?” For more on this year’s challenge, visit
MITinclusiveinnovation.com.
About Liquid Telecom Innovation Partnerships
The Liquid Telecom Innovation
Partnerships initiative is aimed at supporting the growth of digital technology
innovation across Africa. By bringing together key players from within the
region’s innovation ecosystem, Liquid Telecom is helping technology companies
originated and founded in Africa to scale through mutually beneficial
partnerships. Under the Innovation Partnerships initiative, Liquid Telecom is
providing start-ups in the region with connectivity and cloud-based services,
and through Go Cloud – a new programme launched by Liquid Telecom and supported
by Microsoft – is also raising awareness, adoption and usage of Azure Cloud
across Africa. It also provides 4th industrial revolution skills
training through its digital platform, 21cskills.africa.
