10 October 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAKAR, Senegal – The Ghanaian-based innovation group, Dext Technology has walked away with the 2018 ONE Africa Award. The ONE Africa Award honours outstanding African organisations leading the fight against poverty and preventable disease on the continent. This is the tenth year of the awards and it focused on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education. The goal was to recognise the best innovation in the education sector.

The ONE Africa Award was presented in collaboration with the African Union’s department of Human Resources Science and Technology Commission (HRSTC)  at their  “Innovating Education in Africa Expo” in Dakar, Senegal. The expo showcased technical and social innovations in areas of education to share experiences on innovations that address education challenges on the continent. Dext Technology provided a creative and cost-effective solution to making science more accessible to learners across all communities by creating a mini portable science lab called the Science Set toolkit.

The user-friendly and affordable miniaturised science laboratory brings practical science learning to every classroom. Like a maths set, it is small enough to fit on the desk and in the bag of learners at the affordable price of $20 each.

Congratulating the 2018 ONE Africa Award recipient, Rudo Kwaramba-Kayombo, ONE in Africa Executive Director, said: “Africa has enormous resources and it is inspiring to see African-led organisations leading the change. We commend the African Union for hosting the Education Innovative Expo to share and identify creative methods for quality education to reach all learners of our continent, as we march towards Agenda 2063.”

Kwaramba-Kayombo added: “Dext’s innovative technology is a step in the right direction to ensure that our children get a quality education at an affordable price. Through these creative means which are created for Africans by Africans, we will soon wake up to a more prosperous continent.”

Chief Executive of Dext Tech, Charles Ofori said: “We are honoured to receive the 2018 ONE Africa Award.  We’ve always believed that it is imperative to educate the next generation of Africans to understand the technology of today while equipping them with the skills for creating the technology of tomorrow.”

The $100,000 prize money is underwritten by an endowment from The Howard G. Buffet Foundation and recognises innovative African efforts to fight poverty and incentivise more of such efforts.

NOTE TO EDITORS

For additional information about ONE contact Tumba at [email protected]

About ONE

The ONE Campaign is a policy and advocacy organisation of more than 9 million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Not politically partisan, it raises public awareness and presses political leaders to combat AIDS and other preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programs.