Yango Group has concluded the Pan-African Yango Fellowship 2026 programme with a two-day Graduation programme and Pitch Day in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The programme brought together 24 Fellows from six African countries, including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. They were selected from more than 600 applicants and worked in six mixed-country teams to develop tech projects addressing various challenges across Africa.
The resulting projects span cashless payments for informal transport, digital financial identity for informal merchants, medicine supply visibility for community health workers, cross-border job matching, smart waste collection and recycling, and low-cost water-quality testing for rural communities. The closing programme in Abidjan combined project development with exposure to technology and business leaders. Fellows joined a session on AI for impact with Celina Lee, co-founder of Zindi.
The event also included hands-on public speaking and pitch coaching, as well as meetings with Yango Group leaders from several African markets to discuss career growth, entrepreneurship, and building technology businesses in different local contexts. At the final Pitch Day, fellows presented six team projects and selected individual projects to a jury of technology, investment, and industry experts.
The event concluded with an awards ceremony, with a total prize fund of USD 12,000 recognising the strongest team and individual projects. Africoded took the top group prize of USD 4,500 for its AI-assisted platform connecting African job seekers with cross-border employment, remote work, and career-development opportunities across the continent.
Harambee placed second, receiving USD 2,500 for a smart waste collection and recycling platform connecting households, waste collectors, and recyclers. Bloom took third place and USD 1,500 for its African Transit Payment Revolution, a cashless fare-collection system designed for informal public transport across East and West Africa.
In the individual category, Fredrick Mwepu of Zambia won the USD 1,500 Best Individual Project award for RoboCore Zambia, a locally developed robotics platform designed to make practical STEM education more accessible and affordable. Ghana’s Meshack Kwame Nartey received the USD 1,000 runner-up prize for Shuttle Smart Ghana, an app that tracks university shuttles and gives students real-time information on their arrival.
The programme responds to a wider reality across the continent: digital growth depends on people, not only infrastructure. Building and scaling technology locally requires engineers, entrepreneurs, and technology professionals with practical experience — and people who understand the realities of their own markets.
Key points
- 24 Fellows from six African countries developed tech projects addressing transport, health, finance, employment, waste, and water access.
- The programme included a two-day Graduation programme and Pitch Day in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, with a total prize fund of USD 12,000.
- The Fellowship aims to strengthen the talent pipeline and build connections across Africa’s wider technology ecosystem.
