Africa’s Technological Invention Award 2020 Goes to a Woman

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Twenty-six-year old-year-old Charlette N’Guessan, a citizen of Ghana, has won the 2020 Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. She is the first woman to win this prize, conferred in recognition of her invention of Bace Api, a digital verification system that uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition to verify the identities of Africans remotely and in real time. The system could revolutionize cyber security and help curb identity fraud on the continent.

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, established in 2014 by the Royal Academy of Engineering of the United Kingdom, is one of the main awards dedicated to engineering innovation. Its website says that the prize is awarded to “African engineers who address crucial issues in their communities in new and appropriate ways.”