Students at Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia.
KIGALI, RWANDA – The Mastercard Foundation at the moment introduced the launch of the Africa Higher Education for Transformation (AHEFT) Prize, a first-of-its-kind annual award, supported by a USD 500 million dedication over its first decade. The AHEFT Prize acknowledges greater training establishments in Africa which can be driving sustained, systemic institution-wide transformation and increasing alternatives for younger individuals.
The Prize’s inaugural profitable establishments are Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia); the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering, (Burkina Faso); Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (Ghana); Muni University (Uganda); and the University of Rwanda, (Rwanda). Each recipient will obtain USD 3 million to scale transformative work, by means of initiatives agreed with every establishment to advance training alternatives for younger individuals in Africa.
“For twenty years we have seen African institutions rethink what higher education can deliver. The AHEFT Prize turns that proof into momentum: we are backing homegrown excellence with a decade-long commitment, so that universities across the continent become engines of opportunity for millions of young people,” stated Sewit Ahderom, President and CEO, Mastercard Foundation, beneath.
The 2026 AHEFT Prize Laureates
1. Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia
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Category: Excellence in Research and Innovation
Recognized for its capability to align analysis with nationwide priorities, strengthen workforce improvement, and join scientific data on to financial alternative, public companies, and group wellbeing. AAU’s integration with Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, which serves roughly 884,000 sufferers yearly, permits large-scale medical coaching, analysis, and repair supply.
2. International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE), Burkina Faso
Category: Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Recognized for innovation in practice-based engineering and technical training and demonstrating how hands-on, problem-driven studying can produce extremely employable graduates. Established by 16 African international locations working within the Sahel area, 2iE has skilled greater than 13,000 graduates with 70 % securing employment inside 12 months of commencement and greater than 95 % remaining and dealing in Africa in sectors together with water, local weather, power, and infrastructure.
3. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana
Category: Excellence in Research and Innovation
Recognized for constructing one among Africa’s main research-to-innovation ecosystems. Through platforms such because the Kumasi Business Incubator, Innovation Centre, and Technology Consultancy Centre, KNUST interprets analysis into startups, trade options, and public affect, demonstrating how science, expertise, and entrepreneurship can drive financial transformation and job creation.
4. Muni University (MU), Uganda
Category: Transitions to Employment
Recognized for creating efficient pathways from training to employment for refugees and underserved youth. Through its Refugee and Host Community Youth Empowerment and Transformation Initiative (RETI), the college has enabled as much as 70 % of members to safe employment inside three months of finishing this system.
5. University of Rwanda (UR), Rwanda
Sector: Excellence in Health
Recognized for its pivotal function in strengthening Rwanda’s well being system and well being workforce by coaching greater than 26,000 well being professionals. Its community-based coaching mannequin reaches almost 500,000 individuals by means of medical placements, outreach applications, and college well being companies. Today, the University of Rwanda has advanced right into a regional chief in digital well being, vaccinology, biomedical engineering, and well being programs innovation.
The AHEFT Prize acknowledges establishments delivering transformational affect throughout thematic classes together with Teaching and Learning, Transitions to Employment, Research and Innovation, and Entrepreneurship or inside precedence sectors together with Climate and Environment, Agriculture and Agri-food Systems, Health, and STEM/Digital/Artificial Intelligence. Over the following decade, the Prize will acknowledge and award at the least 150 establishments in Africa.
“This is the second to reimagine what greater training establishments can do as engines of human capital improvement – not solely as a spot of studying, however as a direct path to work, to financial participation, and to a greater future for younger individuals throughout Africa’’– Dr. John Nkengasong, Executive Director, Higher Education Initiatives, Mastercard Foundation, beneath.
The profitable establishments can be awarded on the Higher Education Transformation Convening to be held in Accra, Ghana, on September 22, 2026.
The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity, one of many largest foundations on the earth, and the main funder of training in Africa. It works with visionary organizations to allow younger individuals in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to entry dignified and fulfilling work.
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