On this occasion, the startup "Lupiya" from Zambia was awarded the Overall Winner Award worth $50,000. This fintech company's project aspires to transform the financial landscape, from mobile money to blockchain-based platforms in Africa.

In addition, five finalists were awarded the $10,000 "Supernova Winner" prize in each of the following categories: "Al & Digital Cities", "Cybersecurity", "Digital Finance and Blockchain", "Healthtech" and "Sustainability & Agritech".

These prizes were awarded respectively to startups "RawMart" from Egypt, "FACIA" from the UK, "SecondStax" from Ghana, "DeepEcho" from Morocco and "StableFoods" from Kenya.

These projects aim to redefine Africa's public digital landscape, ensuring a brighter, more digitally inclusive future by exploring the limitless possibilities of technology and the ways in which it can be harnessed to promote the continent's growth and development.

The ceremony also saw the awarding of four "Special Mention" prizes of $10,000 to the winning semi-finalists, namely startup "InsightEX" (Mauritania) in the "Woman in Tech" category, "Chari" (Morocco) in the "Expand North Star Dubai Award" category, "SecDojo" (France) in the "Young CEO" category and “Flitto” (South Korea) in the "International Startup" category.

Speaking to MAP, Gitex Africa sales manager Shifa Bagdadi pointed out that this is the biggest pitch competition in Africa, offering startups from different sectors the opportunity to become unicorn startups in the future.

She noted that the finalists had the opportunity to present their technological solutions and innovative expertise to an audience and a panel of judges made up of investors and experts from the startup ecosystem, expressing her enthusiasm for collaborating with more innovative startups across Africa.