• Africa Tech Festival took place in Cape Town this week, now in its 15th year.
• The week-long event was on an in-person hiatus as a result of the pandemic, but 2022 saw a return to the physical version of the event.
• AfricaCom 2022 closes out the event, where 11 different categories make up an award ceremony.

This week the technology and telecommunications industry descended upon Cape Town for the Africa Tech Festival. The event was on a hiatus of sorts as a result of the pandemic, but this year’s iteration marked a return to in-person attendance, culminating in an awards ceremony at AfricaCom 2022.

There were a total of 11 awards handed out during the event, with categories including startup of the year, fintech innovation of the year, female innovator of the year and Africa’s rising star among others.

“Winners of the 15^th Africa Tech Festival Awards (formerly AfricaCom Awards), sponsored by Intelsat, were announced in Cape Town on Wednesday night as the second day of Africa Tech Festival welcomed yet another record attendance,” noted organisers in a press release sent to Hypertext.

Having been in Cape Town this week ourselves, there was indeed a lot of fervour surrounding the week-long event with the return to a physical in-person experience.

“It has been refreshing and energising being back in face to face contact with the technology and telecoms community again. There has been significant advancement in all things digital across the world and nowhere is that more prominent than in Africa,” added Hans Geldenhuys, director at Intelsat Africa, which was one of the key exhibitors in attendance.

“The awards tonight acknowledge this and those who are at the pinnacle of innovation in the industry. Congratulations to them and to all who were part of the proceedings,” he continued.

As for the winners on the day, the categories and companies/people were acknowledged for their achievements:

• Start-Up of the Year – Womenovate,
• HealthTech Innovation of the Year – Nextwear Technologies,
• VC / Investor of the Year Award – Meridiam,
• Fintech Innovation of the Year – Kyanda Africa
• Green ICT Champion – Dr. Olufunso Somorin, Regional principal officer at the African Development Bank,
• Connectivity Project of the Year – Nuran Wireless,
• CXO of the Year – Samuel Chiwanda, Click Mobile Malawi,
• Female Innovator of the Year – Oladiwura Oladepo, co-founder and executive director at Tech4Dev,
• Most Innovative Product or Service – Orange’s Mahali mobile application,
• Africa’s Rising Star – Joseph Lumbahe, lead engineer, Computer Vision at Aizatron Group and a contracted (via Aizatron) fraud detection engineer at MTN South Africa,
•  Changing Lives Award – Hormuud Telecom – humanitarian portal (Somalia).

With Africa Tech Festival already confirmed for next year, it will be interesting to see who the winners will be in 2023.