Yango Group recently concluded its 2026 Yango Fellowship program in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The program brought together 24 fellows from six African countries, including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. These fellows were selected from over 600 applicants and worked in six teams to develop tech solutions addressing local challenges. The teams focused on issues such as transportation, healthcare, finance, employment, waste management, and access to water.
During the 12-week program, the fellows worked on defining problems, researching, designing solutions, developing business models, prototyping, and presenting their final projects. The solutions developed covered various areas, including cashless payments in informal transportation, digital financial identity for informal sector traders, and visibility on medicine supply for community health workers. Other solutions included cross-border matching between job seekers and employers, intelligent waste collection and recycling, and low-cost water quality testing for rural communities.
The closing ceremony in Abidjan combined project development with exchanges with tech sector leaders and business professionals. The fellows participated in a session on AI for impact, led by Celina Lee, co-founder of Zindi, as well as practical workshops on public speaking and pitch preparation. They also met with Yango Group executives from various African markets to discuss professional growth, entrepreneurship, and creating tech businesses adapted to local contexts.
On the final Pitch Day, the fellows presented six collective projects and a selection of individual projects to a jury of experts from the technology, investment, and industry sectors. The event concluded with an award ceremony, where the best collective and individual projects received a total of $12,000 in prizes. Africoded won the first prize in the collective projects category for its AI-powered platform that matches African job seekers with cross-border job opportunities.
Harambee came second and received $2,500 for its intelligent waste collection and recycling platform that connects households, collectors, and recycling actors. Bloom took third place and received $1,500 for its African Transit Payment Revolution project, a cashless payment system designed for informal public transportation in East and West Africa. In the individual category, Fredrick Mwepu from Zambia won the Best Individual Project award for RoboCore Zambia, a locally developed robotics platform.
The Yango Fellowship program aims to address the reality that digital growth in Africa relies on people, not just infrastructure. Developing and evolving local technologies requires engineers, entrepreneurs, and tech professionals with practical experience and an understanding of local market realities. For Yango Group, investing in these talents is closely linked to its development in Africa, where local expertise is essential for building strong businesses.
The program is one of the initiatives through which Yango Group contributes to strengthening the pool of tech talent in Africa while creating connections within the broader African tech ecosystem. According to Shashi Singh, Yango Ride MEA & Asia Operations Director, the fellowship program seeks to provide access to mentorship and opportunities for young African talents. Fredrick Mwepu, the Best Individual Project award winner, expressed his gratitude for the experience and the opportunity to develop his project.
Key points
- The Yango Fellowship program brings together African tech talent to develop local solutions addressing challenges such as transportation, healthcare, and finance.
- The program provides a platform for young African talents to access mentorship and opportunities, with a focus on developing practical experience and local market expertise.
- The 2026 fellowship program awarded $12,000 in prizes to the best collective and individual projects, with winners including Africoded, Harambee, and Fredrick Mwepu's RoboCore Zambia.
