Two Ethiopian Startups Named Finalists for 2023 East Africa Com Awards

Two Ethiopian startups, Arifpay Financial Technologies, and Omishtu-Joy AgTech Engineering, have been named finalists for the 2023 East Africa Com Awards.

The award, which aims to connect and celebrate leaders in tech and telecoms across East Africa, will see the two startups competing against two other startups in their respective categories, with the winners to be announced on April 25, 2023.

Arifpay was named a finalist in the Fintech Innovation of the Year category, while the Jimma-based Omishtu-Joy, made it to the final list in the Startup of the Year category.

Omishtu-Joy is an agritech startup that aims to be the catalyst of agricultural development in Ethiopia by designing and developing innovative agricultural products. The company is working on developing hardware that measures parameters such as soil PH, moisture, humidity, and temperature levels, supported by an AI system that matches crops to farmlands.

The startup also plans to carry out innovation, adoption, and imitation of new and existing technologies for light- and medium-duty agricultural devices for the local market.

Read more on Omishtu-Joy:  Agritech Startup Aims to Raise Farming Productivity in Ethiopia with Innovative Device

On the other hand, Arifpay is the first payment system operator to receive commercialization permission from the National Bank of Ethiopia to provide financial services as a Payment Gateway Operator and Point of Sale (POS) Machine Operator.

Two weeks ago, the startup announced its integration with EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national payment switch, allowing Arifpay to deploy POS machines capable of accepting cards from any bank, promoting a more inclusive payment ecosystem in the country.

Related: Arifpay Relies on Partnerships to Introduce Digital Payments to Ethiopia’s Neighborhood Merchants, Shops

East Africa Com is an annual event that brings together the technology, telecom, media, and broadcasting industries in East Africa to drive digital inclusion across the region. According to the organizers, Ethio Telecom, Safaricom, Ethiopian Airlines, Flutterwave, Google, Microsoft, and Airtel are some of the companies attending this year’s two-day conference and exhibition being held in Nairobi.

During this event, East Africa Com also holds an award celebration to recognize movers and shakers in East African tech across seven categories.