The Crest Awards by Crest Africa is a distinguished digital recognition platform that honours outstanding individuals and organizations shaping Africa’s future. From transformative tech innovators to bold entrepreneurs and impactful leaders, the awards spotlight excellence across technology, business, sustainability, media, policy, and creative enterprise.
Awards
Celebrating Africa’s Trailblazers in Tech, Innovation, and Industry Leadership
What We Recognize
The Crest Awards shine a spotlight on excellence across high-impact sectors, including but not limited to:
- Tech Innovation of the Year
Celebrating breakthrough digital products, platforms, or technologies transforming Africa. - Startup to Watch
Honouring promising ventures showing scalable, disruptive potential. - Woman in Innovation Award
Spotlighting bold female leaders breaking boundaries in tech, business, and social enterprise. - Crest Leadership Award
Recognizing executives, founders, and policymakers driving strategic impact and sectoral change. - Sustainability & Impact Award
Celebrating individuals or teams creating lasting environmental, educational, or social change. - Creative Economy Catalyst
Honouring voices influencing Africa’s cultural, media, or creative tech space.
Who Can Be Nominated?
The Crest Awards are open to:Visionary founders and startup teams
- Tech entrepreneurs, innovators, and digital builders
- Policy and business leaders driving innovation
- Women and young people creating bold solutions
- Diaspora Africans contributing significantly to Africa’s development
- NGOs, media practitioners, and sustainability champions
- Creatives, marketers, and culture shapers redefining African narratives
Nominees must demonstrate clear impact, innovation, and relevance to Africa’s growth story.
What Do Winners Receive?
Each awardee gains:
- A prestigious digital Crest Award Certificate and Plaque
- A spotlight feature on the Crest Africa website and digital channels
- Amplification across social media and partner platforms
- Opportunities for press features, editorial interviews, and media exposure
- Join Crest Africa Entrepreneur leadership network
Media & Press Coverage
The Crest Awards have been featured on notable platforms across the continent, helping past recipients elevate their visibility and unlock new opportunities.
The criteria used in granting the awards of top 50 voices in African Tech:
By January each year, the Crest Africa opens the call for nominee (any individual within the information technology industry who has made original contributions of major significance in the field). Anyone with less than 10 years’ experience in the field cannot be nominated for the Crest Africa award. Nominees must be of African origin regardless of their country of birth or residence.
Any previous awardee or a recognised expert in the field of information technology in Africa, can nominate individuals for the award. Such nominations are to be received before the close of the call for nomination for the year, usually within 6 weeks or immediately 400 nominations.
Following the expiration of the call for nomination, the Board of Directors of the Crest Africa meets to derive a long list the nominations using the impact of their contributions with the aid of the Crest Africa award template (years of experience in the field, originality of contributions and whether or not it is of any major significance in the field, among other criteria). Each nominee is scored using the template and the first 200 nominees are obtained. The next stage of shortlisting involves Crest Africa requesting that the 200 nominees submit probative evidence of original contribution of major significance in the field.
Upon receipt of all submitted evidence, the board and selected experts across the various sub-disciplines of the field of information technology meet to determine the top 100 nominees using a specified template for the assessment of impact.
By early June each year other invited experts together with the board meet to rate the 100 nominees based on their achievements in the field and the top 50 nominees are determined making the top 50 voices in African Tech.