After months of preparation for their pitches, the nine winners from across sub-Saharan Africa of the Afri-Plastics Challenge have been announced at the Afri-Plastics Summit and Awards in Nairobi! In partnership with the Government of Canada and Challenge Works, today the Challenge awards £4.1 million (CA$6.7 million) to innovators with scalable innovations that tackle plastic waste and reduce the volume of pollution making its way to the ocean.

Strand 1 teams have existing solutions that are improving plastic waste management in a socially and environmentally responsible way, to reduce the presence of marine plastic litter across Sub-Saharan Africa. These solutions demonstrated an effective, sustainable and replicable model for significantly increasing their collection and processing of plastic waste, as well as the empowerment of women and girls.

Strand 2 teams work on the development of early-stage products, technology and/or services to encourage the reduction or elimination of plastic usage across Sub-Saharan Africa. Their solutions demonstrated a sustainable approach to reducing the reliance on plastic that also supports the empowerment of women and girls.

Strand 3 teams created campaigns, schemes, tools and other creative interventions that will change both the behaviour of individuals and communities around plastic waste in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as contribute to the empowerment of women and girls.

And the winners are…

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The Afri-Plastics Challenge reveals the 15 finalists of strand 1 & 25 semi-finalists for Strand 2. 

Accelerating Growth: Meet the 15 Finalists for Strand 1!

These finalists have been selected from 30 semi-finalist teams announced in November 2021. Each has already received grants of £10,000 to grow their ideas and demonstrate their scalability in advance of judging. The 15 finalists will now receive a further £100,000 each to advance their solutions to plastic waste management. In addition to financial support, they will receive expert advice and capacity building in the fields of plastic management, human-centered design, market readiness and communications.

Three winners will be announced in March 2023 – first place will be awarded £1 million, second place will be awarded £750,000 and third place will be awarded £500,000.

Creating Solutions: Meeting the 25 Semi-Finalists for Strand 2!

In addition to the 15 finalists in the Accelerating Growth strand, the Afri-Plastics Challenge has selected the 25 semi-finalists in the Creating Solutions strand.

Each semi-finalist will be supported with a £25,000 grant and additional expert support to develop and validate their solutions. From these semi-finalists, 10 finalists will be selected in June 2022. 

Solutions through to the semi-finals of Strand 2 come from across sub-Saharan Africa, with many developing plant- and nature-based alternatives to plastics in everything from food packaging to construction materials. Several semi-finalists are developing sustainable and plastic-free sanitary products for women and others are working on safe drinking water alternatives that don’t rely on single-use plastic bottles.

The Afri-Plastics Challenge reveals the 30 semi-finalists of strand 1, Accelerate Growth

The Challenge’s Judging Panel has selected 30 semi-finalist from across Sub-Saharan Africa – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda. to move forward in the next phase of the challenge.

In July 2021, the Afri-Plastics Challenge announced a call for applications from small and medium enterprises across Sub-Saharan Africa who have a scalable solution or proof of concept that improves plastic waste management in a socially and environmentally responsible way. The shortlisted semi-finalist solutions address the reduction of plastic waste within the wider plastics value chain by reducing marine plastic litter in ways that aim to positively impact their communities.

What’s next for the Semi-Finalists?

In November 2021, the 30 semi-finalists will take part in a Digital Activation Workshop where they will be introduced to a capacity-building support package that will include expert mentoring in the following key areas: Innovation, Plastics, Market-Orientation and Narrative-Building. This will be followed by six weeks of further capacity building support with these mentors to help consolidate plans for scaling solutions. 

The semi-finalists will also be given grants of £10,000 each to support in the development and validation of their scaling plans. At the end of this phase, they will be required to submit a detailed scaling plan together with a pitch video for evaluation by the judges against the criteria. At the end of January 2022, 15 finalists will be selected to move forward in the Challenge and continue their journey to win one of the three final prizes.