Wonga was honoured with the Africa Tech: Technology Company of the Year award at the 2026 Africa Tech Week Awards for its exemplary use of technology. Wonga has successfully modernised the lending process, significantly improving customer outcomes and demonstrating responsible, scalable growth. The company is recognised for its consistently brilliant approach, presenting the loan process in an easy, efficient, and user-friendly manner, a stark contrast to the traditionally tedious procedures of the past. This innovation has been a driving force, compelling South African banks to elevate their service and offerings, ultimately leading to a net positive result for consumers. Wonga’s impressive operational metrics and financial strength underscore its leadership in the sector.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre hosted the 8th Annual Africa Tech Week Awards 2026 organised by Topco Media, to celebrate the 2026 winners on 13 May. The evening was hosted by the esteemed Alan Committie, a South African Comedian and Actor, as Master of Ceremonies.
The Africa Tech Week Awards are designed to recognise and reward technological excellence, digital transformation, and innovation across the African continent.
Rather than just celebrating technology for its own sake, the awards focus on how digital tools are being used to catapult African countries and enterprises into the future, solve critical local challenges, and drive economic growth.
Digital Transformation & Tech Company of the Year Awards; highlights enterprises that have successfully shifted legacy operations into highly profitable, cloud-native, or interconnected digital platforms.
The Tech Impact & Greentech and Circular Economy Awards; celebrated “Tech for Good” initiatives that tackle community challenges (healthcare, education, poverty reduction) or heavily optimise resource management (reducing carbon footprints and recycling old hardware).
Africa Tech Week Awards redefine continental success. It proves that Africa’s digital decade isn’t just about adopting technology, it’s about engineering the platforms, ethical AI frameworks, and secure infrastructures required to make the continent fully self-sustaining.
Ralf Fletcher, CEO of Topco Media expressed the importance of recognition and what it does for both an individual and company alike.
“When a founder wins tonight — when a woman in tech stands on this stage — when a startup from this continent is named the best in its category — it doesn’t just celebrate what has been done. It changes what the next person believes they can do.”
A word from two of our judges, Mushfiqoh Samodien and Neville Cousins emphasised how important a platform like the Africa Tech Week Awards is to entrepreneurs, tech visionaries and enthusiasts and that the most powerful thing we can do is create environments. It also reminds us that Africa is not short of talent, resilience and ideas. “It’s a platform where we can connect and have young entrepreneurs tell us how they are going to change the world and put South Africa on the map.”
“The future of technology in Africa is not something we should wait for. It is already being built by the young minds, entrepreneurs and visionaries stepping forward here today as we’ll see with these awards.”
Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies, delivered the keynote address where he emphasised that the awards act as a critical mechanism for the continent’s development. He expressed that events like this matter because it brings together innovators, funders, policy makers and regulators. “It reminds us that Africa is not simply participating in the global digital economy, but that we are increasingly helping to shape it.”
Awards Winners Include:
- AFRICA TECH: START–UP AWARD – Winner: SwiftVEE
- AFRICA TECH: FINTECH AWARD – Winner: Weaver Fintech Ltd
- AFRICA TECH: TECH IMPACT AWARD – Winner: Youth Employment Service
- AFRICA TECH: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AWARD – Winner: XLink
- AFRICA TECH: PUBLIC SECTOR DIGITAL INNOVATOR AWARD Sponsored by City of Cape Town – Winner: Free State Department of Health
- AFRICA TECH: SECURITY TECHNOLOGY COMPANY AWARD – Winner: Bitventure Consulting Group
- AFRICA TECH: GREENTECH & CIRCULAR ECONOMY AWARD – Winner: EWaste Africa
- AFRICA TECH: EDTECH AWARD – Winner: Injini
- AFRICA TECH: WOMEN IN TECH AWARD – Winner: Kume Luvhani – Vaxowave
- AFRICA TECH: HEALTHTECH AWARD – Winner: Neural Labs Africa
- AFRICA TECH: TECH FOUNDER AWARD – Winner: Micaelyn Maharaj – SB CARD PTY LTD
- AFRICA TECH: LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD – Winner: Tertius Zitzke – 4Sight Holdings
- AFRICA TECH: AI INNOVATION, MATURITY & COLLABORATION AWARD Sponsored by Telkom – Winner: Dentsu
- AFRICA TECH: TECHNOLOGY COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD – Winner: Wonga
Our Tech Icons winners are:
- Mint Group
- Innovator Trust
- Digemy
- Jumo
- Bash
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies
- Jendamark
- Odin Education
- PaySolutions
- Woolworths
Other Awards Winners Include, our Highly Commended Recipients:
- AFRICA TECH: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AWARD – Boxfusion
- AFRICA TECH: PUBLIC SECTOR DIGITAL INNOVATOR AWARD Sponsored by City of Cape Town – South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
- AFRICA TECH: AI INNOVATION, MATURITY & COLLABORATION AWARD Sponsored by Telkom – Adhive Group
The awards honoured 80+ finalists with over 300+ attendees who spanned from small businesses to JSE-listed companies across 14 categories. This demonstrated the wide range of women leadership in mining and logistics and tech, public service, and social impact.
We extend our sincere gratitude to all of our dedicated category sponsors, including Telkom and City of Cape Town, for their instrumental support in championing the advancement of women in leadership and business.
A special thank you also goes to our valued partners, including Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), Geeks4Learning (Strategic Partner), Sunday World (Media Partner), Tech Africa News (Strategic Media Partner), UVU Africa, BPESA and GSOA (Strategic Partner) whose alignment elevated this prestigious event.
To see the incredible individual and organisational category finalists, as well as the esteemed panel of judges who dedicated their time and expertise to selecting the very deserving winners, you can view the official Africa Tech Week Awards 2026 Souvenir Programme: https://issuu.com/topcomedia/docs/atw_awards_souvenir_programme_2026?fr=xKAE9_zMzMw
For more information about our other awards and how to enter, please contact Quarnita on [email protected]
Join us in celebrating, recognising, and promoting the digital transformation of companies across Africa. Learn more at: https://africatechweek.co.za/awards/
