African startups showcase growing innovation sophistication

DAR ES SALAAM: AFRICA’S innovation is flourishing as startups delivers increasingly sophisticated, homegrown solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing challenges signalling not just growth, but a maturing ecosystem that is capturing global attention and redefining what is possible across industries.

The Qualcomm President for the Middle East and Africa and Senior Vice-President of Government Affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Mr Wassim Chourbaji, make the statement during the announcement of 10 selected startups for the fourth edition of the Qualcomm Make in Africa Mentorship Programme yesterday in Johannesburg.

“This year’s startups’ achievements are a powerful testament to Africa’s flourishing innovation ecosystem,” he said, noting that SafeSip, a Tanzanian startup which has developed a smart water access and monitoring solution to ensure safe, reliable drinking water in urban and peri-urban communities is among the 10 startups selected from across Africa.

“Four years into Qualcomm Make in Africa, what stands out is not only the growing number of applications we receive, but the increasing sophistication of the solutions being built,” he said.

The President said these startups are pushing the boundaries of what technologies such as Edge AI and 5G can enable and how they can be deployed at scale across the continent. This initiative is part of the Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform, which supports the development of Africa’s deep-technology ecosystem.

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It provides mentorship and training programmes, with a focus on advanced connectivity and processing technologies such as Edge AI/Machine Learning, compute, Internet of Things (IoT) and Qualcomm’s AI development platform from Arduino.

“Qualcomm support and help guide this next wave of African high-tech innovation, from early design and product development to real-world commercialisation and I look forward to seeing where these startups go next,” he said.

The other selected startups come from Nigeria, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Democratic Republic of Congo. Reflecting the programme’s continued relevance across the continent, the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) returns as a partner for the fourth consecutive year. The ATU’s core mandate is to ensure Africa’s telecommunications ecosystem serves its people.

“Having seen firsthand the quality of startups this programme produces, our return as a partner in 2026 was not a question of if, but how we could deepen our contribution. We look forward to seeing this new cohort build on that impact,” he said.