Four innovators from Kenya, Niger and South Africa have been named finalists for the 2026 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for developing healthcare and agricultural technologies.

The 12th edition of the Africa Prize, organised by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, is scheduled for October 28 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The finalists were selected from 16 shortlisted innovators, and the winner will receive £50,000, while the other finalists will each get £10,000 to help them continue developing their innovations.

“The finalists have developed their innovations to meet local needs and solve relevant issues, whether it be unequal access to specialist healthcare and dependence on imported medical equipment to fertiliser security and pressure on freshwater supplies,” the academy said.

Among the finalists is Naom Monari, a Kenyan, who developed a mobile dialysis clinic named Renal Roads to bring treatment to rural Kenyan communities.

Renal Roads operates from a repurposed 40-foot shipping container with four dialysis machines and other medical infrastructure, providing about 400 dialysis sessions per month. The RAE said the World Diabetes Foundation funded the expansion of access to mobile dialysis.

Also from Kenya is Alice Muhuhu, a medical doctor and entrepreneur who developed a portable, AI-enabled cardiac monitoring platform, MoyoECG, that aids the diagnosis of potential heart conditions and helps facilitate timely referrals.

Ms Muhuhu’s MoyoECG uses “a wearable, wireless multi-lead ECG with embedded AI to capture and analyse the heart’s electrical activity”.

“Early pilots have reduced ECG interpretation time from around 30 minutes to under five minutes, including in settings with unreliable internet connectivity,” the prize organisers said.

Mamane Ousseini from the Republic of Niger developed Likita Care, a locally manufactured patient-monitoring system—making her the first-ever Africa Prize finalist from the West African country.

Likita Care uses hardware, clinical software, and local digital fabrication and has been validated locally through testing with over 100 patients and the deployment of more than 70 monitoring units in Niger.

South Africa’s Dyllon Randall, a chemical engineer, developed Pee-Cycling, a system that converts urine into fertiliser.

The system “can process up to 3,000 litres of urine per day, while every 1,000 litres processed saves around 2,000 litres of potable water”.