Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq: The Ghanaian School Dropout Who Received $600K For Making App To Detect Disease in Crops

• Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq is a 23-year-old who co-founded the Okuafo Foundation, which creates sustainable agriculture technologies for farmers
• He was given $600,000 as a prize for winning the Zayed Sustainability competition in the United Arab Emirates
• The school dropout beat other tech competitors from the United States of America and Germany to become the winner

A 23-year-old Ghanaian, Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq, received $600,000 from the Zayed Sustainability Prize in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after he emerged as a winner of the award in 2020.

The school dropout beat other contestants from across the world to win the prize, which aims to reward SMEs, high schools and NGOs that offer innovative sustainable solutions.

He built an agricultural app for farmers that can detect disease in crops at an early stage.

Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq is also a co-founder of the Okuafo Foundation, an organization that develops sustainable agriculture technologies for farmers.

Read also

CEO of Joy Daddy shows football pitch, swimming pool, games area inside multi-million mansion in video

They have created an app called the Okuafo AI App, which allows rural farmers without internet access to detect diseases in crops at an early stage.

The app uses numbers and colours to send signals to the farmers, making it easy for the users to understand and act.

This will also let farmers spend less or no money on pesticides, bringing in more yields. According to the Zayed Sustainability Prize website, about 30,000 farmers who use the app have increased their crop yields and reduced losses by 50 percent.

Some farmers who have benefitted from the app are in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, and Burkina Faso.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize is open to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-profits. The money given to the winner will be used to develop the pitched solution.

Read also

Talented boy who walks to school daily from Lakeside to Adenta builds model-cardboard house, many react to video

Meanwhile, Mustapha has reportedly developed a pregnancy app for predicting preeclampsia. He built this app because his mom suffered complications during childbirth and could not get help.

Mustapha is not the only Ghanaian developing apps in Ghana. Nana Ghartey, developed Abena AI, the first African hands-free offline voice assistant, a feat that took him six years to accomplish.

Social media react to Mustapha's win

Many people have celebrated Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq’s win. Below are some of the comments on the post.

@Jesuwvegba said:

Be like Techies don't need to go to school

@DuchessSignatu1 wrote:

Why is it that most times school drop out are always the one inventing things. Can someone explain plsss.

@BzingersVine mentioned:

Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq is an example of excellence and his good work is making life easy for mothers especially with this pregnancy app he has established!

@pinky_ruthy commented:

Wow.... Africans are doing more , I'm proud

Read also

Asamoah Gyan: Old video spotlights $3 million mansion of GH football legend, fans admire: "This is amazing"

@SamzyVG added:

I know some people will come under this post to say; “School na Scam”

Ghanaian conservationist awarded $50,000 for protecting endangered crocodile

In a previous story, YEN.com.gh reported that a Ghanaian conservationist, Emmanuel Amoah, was adjudged the winner of the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) for protecting endangered species in the wild.

Amoah is the director of the Threatened Species Conservation Alliance of Ghana. He works to protect critically endangered West African slender-snouted crocodiles (Mecistops cataphractus) in the wild.

Emmanuel was awarded $50,000, the annual price offered to outstanding nature conservationists worldwide.

Source: YEN.com.gh