Tuteria Wins Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation [2017]

A personalized learning tutoring app Tuteria developed by 27-year-old Godwin Benson has won the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation awarded by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering.

Tuteria is a platform that links qualified tutors to student in their area and within their budget. The app has a ratings system, and allows students to book lessons using an upfront online payment system which solves the problem of access to quality, personalised learning and helps people earn income from sharing their knowledge.

Tutors are then paid once the lessons have been confirmed and Tuteria takes 15 to 30% commission for each paid lesson. Mr. Benson however  plans to use the prize money to widen Tuteria’s offering “even beyond Nigeria” and to include online classes and video courses as well.

According to Mr. Benson,

“It is something that solves the problem of access to quality, personalised learning and helps people earn income from sharing their knowledge.”

Mr. Benson emerged top over other 16 participants to clinch the $32,000 prize money.

Other entries in the competition includes a system that reduces the amount of energy used to heat water, an app that controls water consumption and a smart jacket to identity pneumonia.

The engineering innovation award was launched in 2014 and rewards innovators in sub-Saharan Africa.

GTBank & Dr. Benedict Oramah Win 2017 African Banker Awards

Winners of the 2017 African Banker awards have been announced at an event in India. The awards held annually on the fringes of the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank, celebrates excellence in banking and finance on the African continent.

President of Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah won ‘Banker of the Year’. Afreximbank has grown considerably in the past year, whilst other metrics, such as income to cost ratio were very competitive.

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) won the ‘African Bank of the Year Award’. GTBank posted a 37% increase in profits in 2016, despite difficult trading conditions in its main market Nigeria.

Waheed A. Olagunju, the acting CEO and Managing Director of Bank of Industry was honoured with this year’s African Banker Icon award, which recognizes a banking career that spans over two decades.

5th Nigeria Transport Awards

Two subsidiaries of SIFAX Group, SIFAX Haulage and Logistics Limited and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) have won the Haulage & Logistics Company of the Year as well as Aviation Handling Company of the Year awards respectively at the fifth Nigeria Transport Awards.

The Nigeria Transport Awards is an annual event designed to reward deserving companies that have shown diligence, innovation and excellence in the country’s logistics industry.

‘Who is Like God’

Akwaeke Emezi has emerged the African region winner for the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with her work – Who is Like God.

Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online. Akwaeke Emezi’s Who is Like God as well as the work of other regional winners will be published on www.granta.com every Tuesday from 30 May until 27 June (‘Who is Like God’, Akwaeke Emezi – 13 June), in order from East to West across the Commonwealth.

Another Nigerian who also was part of the shortlist is Kelechi Njoku with the story – By Way of a Lifeplot.

Ingrid Persaud from Trinidad and Tobago won the 2017 Commonwealth Writers’ Short Story Prize for “Sweet Sop” – a story exploring harrowing themes of fractured families, death and terminal illness, through the medium of chocolate.

Jowhor Ile Wins 2016 Etisalat Literature Prize

Jowhor Ile, has emerged winner of the 2016 Etisalat Literature Prize for his book: And after Many Days, published in Nigeria by Kachifo Limited, which depicts originality of voice, literary excellence and African sensibility.

Jowhor Ile becomes the first Nigerian to win the award as past winners of the Prize: Fiston Mwanza Mujila from The Democratic Republic of Congo (Tram 83; 2015); South African novelist Songeziwe Mahlangu (Penumbra, 2014) and Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo (We Need New Names, 2013).

As winner, Jowhor Ile receives £15,000, an engraved Montblanc Meisterstück pen, an Etisalat sponsored book tour to three African countries.

He will also have an Etisalat-sponsored fellowship at the University of East Anglia, mentored by Professor Giles Foden, author of “The Last King of Scotland”.

The runners-up include; Jacqui L’Ange’s (South Africa) “The Seed Thief” and another Nigerian Juliet Iromuanya’s “Mr and Mrs Doctor”.

The other runners-up will also enjoy a sponsored multi-city book tour while Etisalat will also purchase 1,000 copies of their books for distribution to schools, libraries and book clubs across Africa with the objective of promoting the reading culture and the publishing industry at large.