Organic waste innovation Mobile Fly Farm creator Bandile Dlabantu has been announced the winner of the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme – South Africa (GCIP-SA).
Mobile Fly Farms use black soldier fly larvae to convert organic waste into animal feed, enabling emerging farmers to organically improve their yields.
Dlabantu will now compete against the top performers in other GCIP programmes from across the globe at the Cleantech Open Global Forum in February 2018.
“It is a great honour to be recognised by such an esteemed panel. Thank you to the GCIP-SA for believing in me and helping to make my dreams a reality,” Dlabantu said.
Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor presented the grand prize of R120 000 to Dlabantu on November 3 at a gala event in Pretoria.
She said that the GCIP-SA’s successful programmatic approach accelerates commercial opportunities and creates a platform for participants to promote their product offerings and raise funding.
“Through its ongoing support of entrepreneurs and innovation in the clean technology space, the programme contributes to strengthening the resilience of the complex South African entrepreneurial economy to operate within the global market, and will have measurable positive economic and social benefits for the country,” the Minister said.
Meanwhile, the most promising woman-led business award was won by Stephanie Pons for her TouchTap innovation that makes water more easily accessible for disabled rural women.
The award for the most promising youth-led business went to Pontsho Moletsane who invented Nosets, an automated irrigation system designed to enhance irrigation efficiency for shallow root crop agricultural markets.
GCIP-SA is a competition-based business accelerator offering participants extensive training and mentoring to help them get their products investment-ready. It also connects participants to networks of local and international peers, as well as potential partners and funders.
It is funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.