Funmi Ogundare
A Nigerian and a Ugandan youth innovators are deploying photo voltaic expertise and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deal with environmental and financial challenges, together with power poverty, meals waste and agricultural losses, whereas bettering livelihoods of their communities.
Stanley Anigbogu, the 2025 Commonwealth younger particular person of the 12 months, has transformed 600 kilogrammes of discarded plastic bottles right into a group power 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 help 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 power 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 power hub, 30 photo voltaic streetlights and 20 floodlights.
The facility additionally supplies charging companies 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 expertise.
“I want to ensure that darkness never limits another child’s ambition,” Anigbogu stated.
His initiative combines plastic waste recycling with renewable power 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 skill to help 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 contemporary produce, whereas photo voltaic irrigation techniques assist farmers keep manufacturing throughout dry durations with out counting on costly diesel-powered tools.
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 mix of renewable power 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 expertise to the wants of various farming communities.
The Commonwealth youth awards, an initiative of the Commonwealth youth programme, supplies a platform for younger innovators to develop and scale their tasks by seed funding, visibility and entry to a world community of policymakers, buyers, companions and youth organisations.
The recognition has additionally enabled Ainomugisha to deliver 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 academic challenges by expertise 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 predicted to deliver 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 expertise and AI.
Their suggestions can 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 may be transformed into renewable-energy infrastructure for susceptible communities, Ainomugisha is exhibiting how expertise will help farmers protect their harvests and enhance their livelihoods.
