Incas CEO nominated for Innovation Prize for Africa

Incas Founder and CEO, Laud Anthony Basing made history by being the first Ghanaian to be nominated for the 2018 Innovation for Africa. The Innovation Prize for Africa initiative honours top African innovators whilst also building strategic partnerships with innovation enablers to strengthen innovation ecosystems in Africa.

To date, the Africa Innovation Foundation (AIF) has supported 55 IPA winners/nominees with more than US$1million and mobilized more than 9 400 innovators from all 55 African countries. This year, the prize attracted more 3000 applicants from 52 countries.

The AIF endorsement and exposure generated through IPA have seen past winners securing over US$135 million worth of investments to grow and scale their businesses. IPA past winners and nominee company valuations amount to over US$200 million.

“We are proud of the impressive innovations that made it to the top 10 this year. They are evident examples of African ingenuity and each innovation is solving a real challenge in a key sector. Africa, and indeed the rest of the world, must keep an eye out – these innovations are ready to propel our continent’s global competitiveness in the market! Furthermore, these top 10 nominees are a great reminder that if given access to capital, Africans are capable of solving African challenges whilst also contributing to the rest of the world,” Pauline Mujawamariya Koelbl the AIF Managing Director who has steered the IPA program since its establishment in 2011.

Each year, 10 final nominees are selected through a rigorous and validated process driven by an expert panel of judges. After face-to-face pitching sessions, the top three winners are selected. The winners and the nominees share the US$185,000 and other incentives, with the grand prize money of US$100,000 going to the best winning project.

His innovation, Incas Vaginal Kit (Incas Vagkit) is a 3-in-1 urine-based test kit that drastically reduces testing time for vaginal infections, leading to the efficient and quick detection and management of vaginitis. The Vagkit simply requires a urine sample and can be used at home; results are available within 10 minutes. A mobile app allows women to speak anonymously to a doctor who then provides a prescription based on the test results. Current diagnostics require women to go to a hospital or lab, where a vaginal fluid sample is taken (mostly by a male) and results released after 72 hours. -Source: New African Magazine