Overview:
Three Mountains of the Moon University students won a global prize for AgriChain, an AI tool that turns farmers’ expected harvests into collateral for bank loans.
Three Ugandan university students have been recognised in Kampala for an artificial intelligence (AI) project that aims to help smallholder farmers get bank loans by using their expected harvest as security. The project won a global prize at last year’s Huawei ICT Competition.
Aaron Masendi, Elvis Oko and Wasswa Atibu, from Mountains of the Moon University (MMU), won second prize in the AI innovation track at the 2025–2026 global final in China.
Their project, AgriChain, uses AI to predict crop yields before harvest. It then turns the expected produce into blockchain-backed crop tokens, which the team says could serve as secure, verifiable collateral for commercial bank loans.
Many smallholder farmers struggle to borrow because they lack conventional security such as land titles.
The students were celebrated on Tuesday at the launch of the 2026–2027 edition of the competition in Nakasero, Kampala. Huawei Technologies Uganda organised the event with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
MMU vice chancellor Prof Pius Coxwell Achanga congratulated the team, who are from the university’s Faculty of Science, Technology and Innovation. He encouraged more students to turn their knowledge into practical solutions.
Another Ugandan institution, Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), won third prize in the computing track at the same global final. Its vice chancellor, Prof Patrick E Kyamanywa, also attended the launch.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Eng Jonard Asiimwe Akiiki, who presided over the event, said young Ugandans could compete internationally if they were given room to develop their ideas.
“I believe our young people have the talent and creativity to develop solutions that address local challenges while competing on the international stage,” Eng Asiimwe said.
Huawei Technologies Uganda country director Edward Zhang Hao said the competition gave students exposure to real-world technology, Huawei certifications and routes to internships and jobs. He urged them to work directly with communities to understand the problems they wanted to solve.
Registration for the 2026–2027 competition is now open to university and college students across Uganda. Entrants will compete in networking, cloud computing, computing and AI innovation.
The best performers will go through to the African regional finals in South Africa, where they will face students from 17 other countries, before the global finals in Shenzhen, China.