BongoHive

Zanga Musakuzi was not a medical professional. He was a developer who had spent years noticing the same gap from the outside: in Zambia, finding the right clinic, the right specialist, or an open pharmacy required knowing the right people.

If you were new to a city, or your regular doctor wasn’t available, or you needed a type of care you’d never needed before, you were largely navigating alone. There was no searchable directory. No way to check which clinics were within reach. No way to read a review of a doctor before you walked through their door. He built MedSearch Zambia — a digital health directory making Zambia’s healthcare system navigable from a phone: hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and specialists, searchable, filterable, accompanied by an AI-powered skin scanning tool that could flag dermatological conditions from a photograph.

When BongoHive and IHM Southern Africa hosted Zambia’s first Digital Health Hackathon in December 2023, seven teams competed for ZMW 180,000 in prize funding. MedSearch Zambia won first place.

What could change in just 3 months?

The Women in AI Initiative is opening doors for female founders across Africa to turn bold ideas into real AI-powered solutions.

Selected participants will receive:
✨ $5,000 grant funding
💻 Dedicated developer support
🤝 Expert mentorship
📈 Hands-on support for ex*****on and growth

Building in healthcare, education, agriculture, finance, retail, logistics, or beyond? This is your moment.

Africa has the ideas. Let’s build the future.

Applications are now open:
https://www.hytel.io/aiinnovators_africa

Tag a founder who needs to see this 👇

In January 2022, seventy developers and entrepreneurs came to BongoHive for the MTN MoMo Hackathon, co-hosted with MTN Zambia and Channel VAS. Fourteen were selected for the intensive build phase. Ten reached Pitch Day. Their products, built in days using MTN’s MoMo API, spanned agriculture, education, digital health, e-commerce, finance, gaming, transport and philanthropy. Mobile money as infrastructure for an entire economy: that was the thesis, and ten teams proved it could be built on.

The quality of the Pitch Day output reflected years of ecosystem-building. These weren’t first-time coders finding their feet, but developers who had been sharpened by years of BongoHive events, mentorship and community, and who now had a serious platform to show what they could do.

The same year, The Hive Coworking ZM Space launched formally as a standalone brand: a premium, permanent workspace for Lusaka’s most ambitious builders, and the Zambian base for regional and global companies. BongoHive was becoming infrastructure.

Yesterday, the FACE NDC Innovation Challenge reached its highly anticipated climax: Pitch Day, where three outstanding green innovations emerged as winners, each securing a $2,000 cash prize to accelerate their growth and impact.

The winning innovations were:

-Kutola Software Systems – digitising waste collection to make it easier to track, manage, and deliver services across communities.
-Green Gold Social – enabling communities to grow their own trees while creating income and green jobs.
-Umodoro Energy – helping urban markets reduce charcoal use while supporting women-led businesses with accessible energy solutions.

The winners were announced after a gruelling round of presentations and intense deliberation by the judging panel. While all ten participants demonstrated exceptional creativity and innovation, these three solutions stood out for their potential to drive meaningful impact within the green economy.

The event brought together a dynamic mix of stakeholders, industry leaders, and judges, all united by a shared passion for sustainable development and green innovation. Unlike traditional pitch competitions, the session adopted a fast-paced speed-dating format, with stakeholders and judges stationed across the room while innovators rotated between them. Each participant had a brief but high-stakes opportunity to present their solution, answer questions, and demonstrate how their innovation could create tangible environmental and economic impact.

The $2,000 cash prize marks only the beginning for these eco-pioneers. To help transform these innovations into sustainable, scalable businesses, all three winners will continue to receive dedicated mentorship and ongoing support from BongoHive.

As the event concluded, one message resonated clearly throughout the room: the FACE NDC Innovation Challenge is not just a competition, but a vital launchpad for the green solutions of tomorrow.

⏰ Applications for Women in Tech: Zambia Cohort 6 close TODAY!

If you’ve been thinking about applying, this is your sign to take the leap into tech, innovation, and leadership. Don’t miss the opportunity to grow your skills, connect with industry leaders, and be part of a powerful community of women shaping the future.

Submit your application before the deadline tonight!

Apply now: Scan the QR code in the image or click the link below.

🔗:https://tinyurl.com/SC-WITZM-
Cohort6