Just a couple of weeks after Uganda hosted the prestigious Africa Blockchain Conference, the country is in the limelight again after it's representative won the Royal Academy of Engineering's Africa Prize, an award given to the best innovator in Africa in the field of engineering. This year the award went to Mr. Brian Gitta, a Ugandan aged 24 for innovating a device that detects malaria without drawing blood.
The device, which he called Matibabu, uses a beam of light which it flashes on the patient's finger detecting a change in colour, shape and concentration of red blood cells to determine the malaria status of a person. The person's diagnosis is then shared to his/her phone, all this without need of a blood sample.
Matibabu is a user-friendly device that does not need special skills to operate, one that can stop the rampant malaria deaths in Africa. People will easily adapt to how it operates and use it to prevent malaria from getting far without needing to visit a hospital for check-up.
This is a great direction for a country that has widely been known for it's high poverty levels. Technology is taking center stage and I believe with blockchain technology officially accepted into public systems by the government, innovation is going to be more efficient and precise.
This prize is an inspiration to the rest of Ugandans to work harder in innovating something that can make people's lives better.