One hundred of Africa’s most innovative youth gathered at the Brightest Young Minds (BYM) 2016 summit, held in Johannesburg last month, to discuss and find innovative solutions for Africa’s socioeconomic challenges.

“BYM is a nonprofit public-benefit organisation aimed at providing a platform for identifying, connecting and mobilising the next generation of leaders,” explains BYM CEO Dhiren Govender.

At the end of the five-day summit, the teams were required to pitch their solutions to a panel, which selected the ideas that would most sustainably create socioeconomic change for those in the greatest need.

The winning team – RESE: AfricaLit – based its innovation on infrastructure development, particularly a light pole, which uses renewable energy to provide illumination in rural areas and townships. Using these poles will also empower communities by providing safety through lighting.

RESE: AfricaLit also conceptualised the pole to provide other services, such as WiFi, to enable underdeveloped and underresourced communities to have access to information.

The team’s idea will be showcased in September at the South Africa Innovation Summit, which will be held in Johannesburg and will be presented by social entrepreneurship community organisation the Impact Hub.

Absa – the main sponsor of BYM – will work with the team through small, medium-sized and microenterprise (SMME) investment company Awethu Projects to determine the sustainability of RESE: AfricaLit’s business model to help it morph into a legitimate business in the lead-up to the summit.

In addition, Absa’s renewable-energy and infrastructure teams will host brainstorming sessions with RESE: AfricaLit to unpack the concept and prepare the team members for a visit to the Union Buildings, in Pretoria, to potentially present their ideas to the Presidential planning committee for the National Development Plan (NDP).

Absa corporate and investment banking CEO Stephen van Coller noted at the summit that there was significant focus on finding innovative solutions to assist with the delivery of the NDP.

“BYM candidates are choosing some of the key aspects of the NDP, such as education, and are trying to ensure that the solutions created are for disadvantaged people, such as single mothers and child heads of family,” he explained, adding that it was important to ensure solutions were “packaged” for the people the BYM candidates were trying to help.

Govender added that the summit highlighted the importance of public- and private-sector, as well as civil society partnerships, in achieving the NDP’s target of eliminating poverty and reducing inequality by 2030.

Gordon Institute of Business Sciences social entrepreneurship network head Kerryn Krige delivered a speech on the importance of social and disruptive innovation for achieving meaningful social change.

“Many of our delegates are social entrepreneurs or aspiring social entrepreneurs, which is an innovative sector that South Africa has not fully tapped into yet,” Govender said.

Meanwhile, Van Coller pointed out that BYM was an excellent opportunity to develop SMMEs, which he noted accounted for about 80% to 85% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the countries in which Barclays operated.

He asserted that failure to develop SMMEs would result in South Africa’s continued anaemic GDP growth rate.