- Yango aims to foster the emergence of billion-dollar tech companies in untapped African markets through its Pan-African fellowship.
- The fellowship attracted over 600 applicants for 24 spots from markets including Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Côte d’Ivoire.
- Projects addressed key local challenges such as cashless transport payments, digital financial identity, medicine supply visibility, job matching, smart waste collection, and affordable water-quality testing.
- Top prizes went to Africoded for an AI jobs platform, Harambee for smart waste collection, Bloom for cashless transit payments.
Shashi Singh, Director of Operations, Yango Ride MEA & Asia, told Business Insider Africa that Yango wants to see “a couple of unicorns” emerge from the fellowship within the next three to five years, across Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Côte d’Ivoire.
“I want the next unicorn to come out of these frontier markets,” Singh said, pointing to the depth of talent across markets that receive less attention than Africa’s better-known technology hubs.
More than 600 applicants competed for just 24 places in the 2026 fellowship, with fellows selected from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
The 12-week programme took participants through problem research, solution design, business modelling, prototyping and pitching.
The fellowship attracted over 600 applicants for 24 spots from markets including Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Côte d’Ivoire.Yango
“600 applications for 24 places doesn’t tell you Africa lacks talent, it tells you how much talent is waiting for structured access to mentorship and opportunity. Africa has no shortage of brilliant young people. What’s harder to find is a mentor, a network, and the opportunity to test an idea against a real problem. That’s the specific gap this Fellowship exists to close,” Singh said.
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The programme has expanded rapidly since its launch. “First year we did one country. Second year we did two countries. This year we’re doing six countries,” Singh said.
Yango SVP, Shashi Singh said he hoped to see a couple of unicorns emerge from the fellowship within the next three to five yearskbc.co.ke
The 2026 fellows worked on projects addressing practical challenges across African markets, including cashless payments for informal transport, digital financial identity for informal merchants, medicine supply visibility for community health workers, cross-border job matching, smart waste collection and low-cost water-quality testing.
Yango also sees the fellowship as a potentialcts could eventually be integrated into Yango, while others could become competitors
That reflects the company’s broader belief that local founders have an advantage when solving African problems. Singh said developers building from outside the continent can lack the local “context window” needed to understand infrastructure, consumer behaviour and market constraints.
Top prizes went to Africoded for an AI jobs platform, Harambee for smart waste collection, Bloom for cashless transit payments.Yango
The fellowship ended with a Pitch Day in Abidjan where Africoded took the top group prize of USD 4,500 for its AI-assisted platform connecting African job seekers with cross-border employment, remote work and career-development opportunities across the continent.
Harambee placed second, receiving USD 2,500 for a smart waste collection and recycling platform connecting households, waste collectors and recyclers, while Bloom took third place and USD 1,500 for its African Transit Payment Revolution, a cashless fare-collection system designed for informal public transport across East and West Africa.
In the individual category, Fredrick Mwepu of Zambia won the USD 1,500 Best Individual Project award for RoboCore Zambia, a locally developed robotics platform designed to make practical STEM education more accessible and affordable.
Ghana’s Meshack Kwame Nartey received the USD 1,000 runner-up prize for Shuttle Smart Ghana, an app that tracks university shuttles and gives students real-time information on their arrival.
In the individual category, Fredrick Mwepu of Zambia won the USD 1,500 Best Individual Project award for RoboCore ZambiaYango
Oulimata Rose Dia received the USD 1,000 Best Technical/AI Contribution award for Smart Bin Collection, a solar-powered system that monitors bin fill levels in real time and uses 2G connectivity to support more efficient waste collection.
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“Growing up, hands-on STEM tools were something I only saw in videos — RoboCore Zambia exists to close that gap, so the next student who wants to build something doesn’t have to wait for the chance I almost didn’t get,” Mwepu said.
“I am excited that my project got to see the light of day and it was a wonderful experience to travel, meet other fellows from all other countries and learn directly from experts and leaders in Tech and AI. This is an experience I will never forget.”
For Yango, the fellowship is increasingly about more than training. It is becoming a way to identify founders early, connect talent across African markets and create a pipeline of technology businesses that can grow beyond the countries where they started.
Yango Group is an international tech company, transforming globally sourced technologies into everyday services that are tailored to local communities. With an unwavering commitment to innovation, we reshape and enhance leading cutting-edge technologies from around the world into seamlessly integrated daily services for diverse regions.
Yango Group provides its digital services, including mobility, delivery, foodtech, entertainment among many others, across 30+ countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, South Asia and other regions.
