A while back, we asked ourselves a simple question. What if coastal fishermen didn’t have to go through so much rigour to bring their catch ashore? Not just the rigour, but loss of assets and lives.
Anyone who has seen what these men and women do every day knows the reality. The heavy nets, the waves pushing back, the sheer physical effort it takes to do what they have already done a hundred times before. We believed there was a better way, and we wanted to find it. So we created the SMAT-FISH Challenge, which stands for Sustainable Mobile Aquatic Transport for Fishing. We partnered with the Ghana Scholarly Society and put out a call to innovators: design something practical, affordable, and sustainable that can help fishermen along Ghana’s coast pull their catch to shore with greater ease, speed, and safety
What came back to us was absolutely stunning.
The submissions were not just clever, they were thoughtful. You could tell that the people who entered this competition actually thought about the fishermen, about the conditions, about what would work in the real world and not just on paper. The creativity was outstanding across the board, and choosing a winner was genuinely difficult. That is actually a good problem to have.
To ensure every submission was judged fairly, we brought in an independent panel of accomplished professionals from the United Kingdom, Kenya, and Nigeria. Engineers, academics, and technical experts who had no stake in the outcome, only in getting it right. Their assessment was thorough, and their verdict was clear.
We are proud to announce the winners of the SMAT-FISH Challenge: 1st Place — Pull Free Technology Team led by Richard Andzie-Quainoo, 2nd Place — Exo 4 Team led by Ansar Oscar, and 3rd Place — Team 254 led by John Opanda.
Congratulations to all three teams. You brought your best, and it showed.
At Skittals, we believe Africa has no shortage of people with the intelligence and drive to solve its own challenges. What we want to do is create more spaces where that talent can shine. This competition was one of those spaces, and we are proud of what it produced.
This is just the beginning. There is more to come, and we cannot wait to show you what happens next.