A Nigerian, Dr. Imodoye Abioro of HealthBotics has been named the winner of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Africa Digital Innovation Competition, held in partnership with the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF).
The announcement was made at the Innovators’ Gathering, a reception at the U.S. Department of State featuring speakers including the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser; New York City Mayor Eric Adams; actor and filmmaker Idris Elba; philanthropist Tony Elumelu; USADF President and CEO Travis Adkins; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president and head of International Affairs Division, Myron Brilliant.
During the event, the U.S. Chamber’s Myron Brilliant who noted that “Africa’s digital future is bright, said the Chamber was delighted to recognize some of the amazing impactful startups from the Continent.
He said all the nearly-two thousand innovators and changemakers that entered the US Chamber’s 2022 Digital Innovation Competition are winners and deserved to be recognized.
Mr Myron Brilliant said next year, the US Chamber of Commerce hope to double the number so it could continue to showcase the incredible culture developing throughout Africa.
“But we are delighted to recognize our first prize winner HealthBotics from Nigeria. HealthBotics encapsulates the ingenuity that African innovators demonstrate every day, turning obstacles into solutions using digital solutions to make sure rural hospitals have the lifesaving supplies they need. Digital transformation is key to Africa’s development, and we look forward to helping more companies across Africa to expand awareness about the start-ups in Africa that are driving transformational change.”
On his part, USADF President and CEO Travis Adkins stated that “The US African Development Foundation [is] excited to be a partner of the US Chamber of Commerce this evening for their Annual Digital Innovation Competition, We’re so excited because we believe at the U.S. African Development Foundation that Africa is the continent not only of now, but also of the future.”
U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, noted that “The founders who took part in the pitch competition are not just running successful businesses, but
“They’re actually solving some of our most vexing problems, like closing enduring gaps in healthcare and helping entrepreneurs break into the formal economy. We have a huge stake in the success of African innovators. Because when they’re empowered to reach their full potential, it’s good for the region. It’s good for the continent. It’s good for the world.”
Imodoye Abioro, a Nigerian doctor, entrepreneur, and self-taught IBM Cloud software developer and founder of a health tech whose stated mission is to “solve Africa’s perennial healthcare challenges, had developed two flagship products notably Mediverse and Lend an Arm.
Mediverse is a digital Artificial Intelligence, AI-powered health record backed by blockchain technology that allows doctors and nurses to record patients’ health information “with just their voice, eliminating the endless need for writing and typing.”
Abioro created the second product, Lend an Arm in 2017 to connect blood donors and hospitals with blood banks. With that mobile and web AI-powered solution, blood donors and recipients can chat, organize, or join a blood donation campaign. They can also find the nearest blood bank.
The two products earned Abioro several awards in 2020, including the AI for development Challenge, the Young Innovator Award at the World Summit Awards, and the African App Launchpad Cup. In 2021, he was one of the winners of the African Young Innovator Award for Health.
Apart from Health Biotics, he also co-founded Bimi Online for Africa (in 2018), a health information aggregation platform that he served until December 2019 as the Chief Technology Officer. He was also, from 2019 to 2020, the Chief Technology Officer of Future Food Project, a startup committed to “ending malnutrition in Africa.”
RADIO NIGERIA