Five groundbreaking young African tech innovators you should know

Norah Magero

Kenyan, 2022 WINNER (with her team)

Magero is the current holder of the Africa Prize. The challenge she and her team sought to address with their invention – VacciBox – was the lack of infrastructure and human resource across Kenya for vaccine distribution. The statistics show that 3 in 10 Kenyan children are not adequately vaccinated. This challenge was heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic as healthcare practitioners and supply chains could not distribute temperature-sensitive medicine.

VacciBox helps to get essential vaccines to communities where cold-chain infrastructure is lacking, to ensure patients don’t miss the opportunity to be completely immuniZed. VacciBox is a small, mobile, solar-powered fridge that safely stores and transports temperature-sensitive medicines such as vaccines, for use in-field vaccinations and in off-grid hospitals.

The VacciBox can also be used to transport blood and tissue. Magero and her team hope that VacciBox will help alleviate these issues by ensuring healthcare workers have a reliable means of transporting temperature-sensitive medicine wherever they need to go.

The 40-litre VacciBox is portable and lightweight. It can be wheeled or mounted on a bicycle, motorbike or boat, and has a telescopic handle for easy mobility. A built-in thermostat and digital thermometer maintain temperatures required for cold-chain medicines, a battery supply as well as mains and solar panel connectivity, as well as a charge controller, ensure power stability. Magero and her team are currently running three pilot projects with rural healthcare facilities to evaluate the VacciBox’s features and efficacy.

Magero plans to improve the VacciBox app to connect to a network of healthcare facilities so that vaccine, medicine and blood bank stock can be viewed across a region, making it easier to allocate and distribute life-saving products as needed.

Read more about the Africa Prize finalists and winners since 2015 to see the impact young innovators are making on the continent.