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Mary Aboagye wins Israeli Green Innovation Competition

An Environmentalist and the Chief Communications Officer(CCO) at aiScarecrowTechnologies, MsMary Aboagye, on Sunday won the fourth edition of the Israeli Green Innovation Competition (IGIC) in Accra.

aiScarecrowTechnologies is an agrictech startup focused on biological pest control.

MsAboagye won the competition with her startup’s innovative drone scarecrow developed to help farmers drive away pest birds from their farms.

She would be going on a fully-paid trip to Israel to participate in industry-related meetings, excursions and conferences to learn best practices, network and seek potential investors to expand her existing business.

In second and third place were Cletus Baalongbuoro, founder of Ponaa Briquettes, a company which recycles rice husks into smokeless alternative charcoal for cooking and heating by households and businessesand KorkorQuarcoo, a co-founder of Waste Advantage, a company which recycles pineapple heads into paper bags.

Instituted in 2019, the IGIC sought to honour individuals and organisations that came up with innovative solutions to promote environmental conservation and agriculture in Ghana.

The initiative was undertaken in collaboration with the Ghana Garden and Flower Movement, an initiative of Strategic Communications Africa Limited (Stratcomm Africa). The IGIC is a combination of the two greatest strengths of Israel: Agriculture and Innovation.

Shlomit Sufa, Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, noted that Israel prides itself as a nation of innovation that helps to stimulate innovation wherever it finds itself.

“As such, the IGIC focuses on innovative startups in the agriculture and horticulture sector. This is in line with Israel’s commitment to stimulate and support both agriculture and innovation in Ghana,” she added.

Ms Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Stratcomm Africa, reiterated that the IGIC supported the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13- which calls for an urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, and thanked the Israeli Embassy for the collaboration over the years.

She said applications for the competition had grown over the years and that showedmore Ghanaian innovative startups were coming up.

Ms Aboagye for her part expressed her excitement about winning the competition, adding that this would go a long way in meeting her startup’s goal.

She told the Ghanaian Times that aside local farmers mounting pieces of wood and adorning them with some kind of outfit to scare pest birds, some other farmers were using children between seven and eight years to scare animals on farms.

“This product we have developed solves this problem. It has a flight time of approximately an hour with two spare batteries and a total flight time of three hours.

“We project entering the landfill waste industry within one year and the aviation industry ($1 billion per annum) within two years,” she added.

Past winners of the competition include Mr Prince Pius Nutsugah, from Coologi Ghana, who won the competition in 2019; Mr Jefferey Appiagyei of SAYeTECH, winner for 2020 and Mr Maxwell KojoXonu from EbaPreneur Solutions Ghana, winner for the 2021 edition.

BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR

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