Muzalema Mwanza, founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance, Zambia-based social enterprise, has been announced as the winner of Pitch@Palace Africa 3.0, hosted by The Duke of York at St James’s Palace, London
The kits developed by Safe Motherhood Alliance contain tools for midwives in Zambia delivering babies in under-resourced clinics or at home births. Each kit includes basic items like a scalpel, sanitary pads, a hygienic sheet and cotton swabs, a list often given to prospective mothers to provide themselves with when they arrive at hospitals to give birth.
Chelmis Thiong’o, from Kenya, came second with Sign-IO, a smart-glove that tracks and translates sign language movements into speech in real time. The team behind Sign-IO were selected as winners of the public vote, the Pitch@Palace Africa 3.0 People’s Choice Award.
Third place was presented to Anne Rweyora from Uganda with Smart Havens Africa, a social enterprise which aims to end housing poverty through the development of sustainable, eco-friendly affordable housing for women.
The winner of Pitch@Palace Africa 3.0 will take part in Pitch@Palace Global 4.0 at St James’s Palace on 11 December 2019. Pitch@Palace Global 4.0 aims to bring together entrepreneurs from all Pitch@Palace events that take place through the year.
Pitch@Palace Africa is a collaboration between the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and Pitch@Palace, an initiative founded by The Duke of York in 2014 as a platform to accelerate the work of entrepreneurs. Pitch@Palace initiative aims to support entrepreneurs by providing them with the opportunity to access mentors and advisers, distribution systems and supply chains, connections and investment.
During the event, engineering entrepreneurs were shortlisted for the 2019 Africa Prize to pitch their innovations directly to an audience from the worlds of entrepreneurship, technology, media and investment.
In June 2019, the Africa Prize finalists will present their pitches at an event held in Kampala, Uganda.
