A team of four engineering students from Kumasi has beaten 300 competitors across 40 African countries with a low-cost solution for rural water sanitation.
Four students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology have walked away with $50,000 after winning the Africa Innovation Challenge in Nairobi, beating out 300 competing teams from 40 countries.
The team — Esi Abboah, Nana Darko, Richard Tetteh, and Priscilla Asiedu — spent 18 months developing AquaFlow, an AI-powered monitoring system that detects contaminants in groundwater and triggers localised treatment automatically. The system can be installed for under $400 and runs on solar power.
"People in my grandmother's village still walk two hours for clean water," Esi told Kente Studios from Nairobi. "We built this because the problem is real and the solution needs to be affordable."
The team plans to use the prize money to pilot AquaFlow in three communities in the Upper West Region, with support from the Water Resources Commission of Ghana. A licensing deal with a South African water NGO is also under discussion.
KNUST Vice Chancellor Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso described the win as "a proud moment for Ghanaian science education," adding that the university will fast-track a commercialisation support programme for student-led innovations.
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Abena Mensah
Abena is a final-year student at the University of Ghana who covers campus culture, student politics, and the youth experience across Ghana's universities.