Divin Kouebatouka is the winner of the Africa App Challenge. The 2024 edition of this start-up competition, supported by RFI and France 24, had the theme of green energies. The engineer from Congo-Brazzaville won the favor of the jury with his “Green Box”, an agricultural management application intended to reduce post-harvest losses.
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The “Green Box” is a system of solar-powered cold rooms, managed by an app, which allows small farmers to keep their perishable products longer. Its inventor, Divin Kouebatouka, 33, says he has carried out this project since childhood. “ At the age of 15, I accompanied my parents in the fields, in their agricultural projects. I saw that my parents were losing half of their production. And after my studies, that’s what I wanted to do. I am a renewable energy engineer, which allowed me to install these cold rooms and make it a personal mission », explained the winner.
For Stéphane Madou, West Africa project team manager at the French Development Agency, the strength of the “Green Box” is that it manages to meet two needs at the same time: “ Firstly, the conservation, or at least the minimization of agricultural waste, or in any case unused agricultural residues, and also optimal use of the natural resources available to Africa, and in particular solar energy. »
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A check for 15,000 euros to develop the project
Of all the projects presented, that of Divin Kouebatouka was the most mature, salutes Philippe Miquel, Managing Director CFAO Infrastructure-B2B Sector, who was part of the jury. The first “Green Boxes” are already in place, and the engineer is only waiting for large-scale development. “ It already has four or five “Green Boxes” in operation, with 25 planned. It’s ready to start. This project is the one whose price would boost scaling the most. And in innovation, scaling is a critical element “, declared Divin Kouebatouka.
He will receive a check for 15,000 euros to develop his project, or 9.8 million CFA francs.
This competition is supported by RFI and France 24, as well as its partners CAD/CAM, Digital Africa, IRD, Ayoba, Viva Technology, Abidjan Sustainable City Club, Digital Energy Facility (EU, AFD, ADEME). The eighth edition of the Africa App Challenge aims to reward digital innovations to improve green energy in Africa.