Shonaquip Social Enterprise’s Centre for Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is proud to announce its partnership with NAVU, an emerging prosthetics innovation startup founded by Stellenbosch University MEngSci candidate and innovator Amohetsoe Shale.
The partnership brings together a shared commitment to accessibility, inclusive innovation and locally relevant assistive technology solutions designed to improve mobility, independence and participation for communities across Africa.
Recently, Amohetsoe Shale’s work through NAVU received international recognition through the Hult Prize ecosystem, one of the world’s leading platforms for student and early-stage social entrepreneurship. The recognition highlights the growing global relevance of African led innovation within the accessibility and MedTech sectors.
Through NAVU, affordable prosthetic technologies are being developed with a strong focus on human centred design, practical usability, and accessibility for underserved communities. The collaboration with the CIIE will support the continued development of this work within a broader ecosystem focused on strengthening inclusive innovation across the continent.
For the CIIE, the partnership reflects the organisation’s ongoing mission to support innovators developing assistive technology and MedTech solutions rooted in local realities and lived experience. Through technical support, innovation guidance and ecosystem collaboration, the centre aims to help ideas move beyond early development into meaningful real-world impact.
Importantly, partnerships like this represent more than product innovation alone. They contribute to a growing movement reshaping how accessibility, mobility and inclusion are understood across Africa, while strengthening pathways for disability innovation, entrepreneurship, and long-term participation within the economy.
As inclusive innovation ecosystems continue to grow across the continent, collaborations between organisations such as NAVU and the CIIE demonstrate the extraordinary potential that emerges when innovation is supported collectively and designed with people, communities, and real environments in mind.
Because some of the most important ideas shaping the future of accessibility are already being built here in Africa.