Funmi Ogundare
A Nigerian and a Ugandan youth innovators are deploying photo voltaic know-how and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deal with environmental and financial challenges, together with vitality poverty, meals waste and agricultural losses, whereas bettering livelihoods of their communities.
Stanley Anigbogu, the 2025 Commonwealth younger individual of the 12 months, has transformed 600 kilogrammes of discarded plastic bottles right into a group vitality hub serving internally displaced individuals in Abuja, whereas Shifra Ainomugisha, the 2026 award recipient, is utilizing solar-powered chilly storage, irrigation and AI to assist small holder farmers in Uganda cut back post-harvest losses.
Their initiatives reveal how youth-led improvements can assist environmental sustainability, strengthen meals safety and create financial alternatives, with the Commonwealth offering platforms to join younger innovators with companions, buyers and policymakers.
Anigbogu, who based LightEd in 2020, developed the Lighthouse for Peace challenge to deal with vitality challenges on the Durumi camp for internally displaced individuals in Abuja, drawing on his childhood expertise of unreliable electrical energy.
The challenge reworked about 30,000 discarded plastic bottles into helpful infrastructure, together with a group vitality hub, 30 photo voltaic streetlights and 20 floodlights.
The facility additionally gives charging providers for greater than 250 gadgets weekly, enabling kids to research after sundown, bettering security throughout the group and offering younger volunteers with alternatives to purchase inexperienced abilities.
“I want to ensure that darkness never limits another child’s ambition,” Anigbogu mentioned.
His initiative combines plastic waste recycling with renewable vitality to deal with environmental issues and the on a regular basis challenges confronted by displaced households.
Similarly, Ainomugisha’s agricultural intervention emerged from her expertise rising up on her household’s tomato farm in western Uganda, the place vital portions of produce had been misplaced earlier than reaching the market.
Concerned in regards to the affect of post-harvest losses on her household’s revenue and talent to assist her training, she co-founded Solafam Uganda Limited, a woman-led social enterprise that gives technology-driven options to smallholder farmers.
The enterprise deploys solar-powered chilly storage amenities to protect recent produce, whereas photo voltaic irrigation programs assist farmers keep manufacturing throughout dry intervals with out counting on costly diesel-powered gear.
It additionally developed LYN AI, a WhatsApp-based agricultural adviser that gives farmers with steerage on planting, pest administration, irrigation, harvesting and market selections.
Through the mixture of renewable vitality and AI, the initiative seeks to cut back meals waste, enhance agricultural productiveness and strengthen farmers’ incomes.
Ainomugisha plans to broaden Solafam’s operations into West and Southern Africa, adapting its know-how to the wants of various farming communities.
The Commonwealth youth awards, an initiative of the Commonwealth youth programme, gives a platform for younger innovators to develop and scale their initiatives by means of seed funding, visibility and entry to a global community of policymakers, buyers, companions and youth organisations.
The recognition has additionally enabled Ainomugisha to convey consideration to the challenges confronted by smallholder farmers and the potential of youth-led innovation to deal with them.
Meanwhile, Anigbogu continues to pursue different technology-driven initiatives alongside his work with LightEd.
He based Artechubs Nigeria to deal with instructional challenges by means of know-how and Re-build Inc., a {hardware} analysis, growth and engineering studio centered on serving to to bridge Africa’s infrastructure hole.
He can also be a member of the 23-person worldwide taskforce shaping the 2026 Commonwealth youth discussion board, scheduled to maintain from November 2 to 4 in Antigua and Barbuda alongside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Themed, ‘Investing in Youth Agency: Co-Creating Pathways Towards Shared Prosperity’, the discussion board is anticipated to convey collectively greater than 300 youth delegates from 5 Commonwealth areas.
Anigbogu and Ainomugisha will share their experiences of translating private and group challenges into sensible options utilizing photo voltaic know-how and AI.
Their suggestions will likely be introduced to Commonwealth leaders, with the intention of making certain that younger individuals’s views inform discussions on resilience-building and shared prosperity.
While Anigbogu is demonstrating how discarded plastic could be transformed into renewable-energy infrastructure for weak communities, Ainomugisha is displaying how know-how can assist farmers protect their harvests and enhance their livelihoods.
