The African Climate Innovation Challenge (ACIC) has announced its competition winners, empowering young Africans to scale their real-world solutions to address global problems.

The ACIC is designed to empower and support young African changemakers to tackle the climate crisis through entrepreneurship and innovation.

The competition will provide financial backing, a tailor-made business incubation curriculum, and peer-to-peer mentorship to the winning startups to scale and accelerate their solutions.

The pitch event that determined the winners took place on November 29, 2025, in Kampala, Uganda.

It is a culmination of a year-long process of putting out calls for applications, selecting the 2025 cohort, curriculum training, and the final pitch event, where the five winners were selected by an independent jury. 

The ACIC is a beacon of innovation and creativity that has captured the imagination of young Africans, determined to drive positive environmental and social impact within their communities and across the continent.

Created to nurture and accelerate innovative solutions to sustainability challenges, the competition rallied the passion and ingenuity of visionary youth working on innovative green businesses on the continent.

Members of this year’s finalists came from Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, Uganda, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cameroon, and Kenya, celebrating the diversity across the continent, providing African solutions to global challenges, and underscoring the dynamic potential of African youth in shaping the continent's response to the climate crisis.

The winners this year are:

• Jafife - Morocco

Farmers lose large shares of crops post-harvest due to poor preservation, raising food insecurity and methane emissions. Jafife deploys smart solar dryers to extend food shelf life, digitize supply chains, and connect farmers with processors. This reduces food waste, cuts CO₂ emissions from energy-intensive drying, and strengthens rural climate resilience.

• Helton Traders Limited - Uganda

Helton Traders Limited is a female-led Ugandan social enterprise that converts post-consumer PET waste into affordable, high-quality polyester sewing threads. Through a closed-loop system, the company supports over 100 waste collectors, reduces reliance on imports, accelerates delivery timelines, and advances local industry. With growing market reach and strong environmental and social impact, Helton is scaling production, creating jobs, and driving sustainable manufacturing in East Africa.

• Rôbalôtô - Togo

Schools in Togo generate tons of plastic monthly, often burned or dumped, contributing to pollution and climate vulnerability. Rôbalôtô creates a circular waste system with smart bins, school clubs, and local recycling into solar bags. The solution lowers plastic emissions, prevents toxic burning, empowers youth, and fosters climate-conscious communities.

• Zuripacks - Kenya

Plastic packaging wastes resources and clogs waterways during floods. Zuripacks produces sustainable, plastic-free packaging alternatives that cut upstream emissions and reduce downstream pollution risks for climate-vulnerable cities.

• Trashcoin - Nigeria

Africa generates massive plastic waste, most of which ends up in landfills or waterways. Trashcoin gamifies recycling by rewarding users with digital tokens for collected plastic waste. This system has already diverted over 2.5 million kg of plastic, reducing pollution, preventing emissions from open burning, and creating green jobs.

Although Africa accounts for one-fifth of the global population, the region currently attracts only 3 per cent of global energy investment. By 2030, this needs to double. With this in mind, ACIC is supporting solutions through training and financing to nurture a generation of leaders who will make a lasting impact on our environment.

ACIC celebrates innovation and offers resources, mentorship, and recognition of the most outstanding ideas. As the world looks to the youth for innovative solutions, this event is set to continue playing a pivotal role in unlocking the transformative potential of the next generation of African leaders.