The Africa Health Collaborative (AHC) Health Innovation Festival (HIFest) 2026 opened in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday, June 4, 2026, bringing together emerging entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and health-sector leaders from across Africa and beyond to explore locally driven solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
Held under the theme “Innovate Africa’s Health Forward,” the festival convenes nine partner institutions working together to advance health innovation, entrepreneurship, research, and health systems transformation across the continent.
Opening the festival, Ashesi University Provost Prof. Angela Owusu-Ansah and Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) reflected on the growth of the Africa Health Collaborative and challenged participants to use the festival as a platform to transform promising ideas into practical solutions that improve health outcomes across Africa.
Through these ventures and ideas, the Health Collaborative is bound to succeed and to replicate itself, by building robust systems, proffering solutions and ensuring that our current and future health systems across the continent is better than we have inherited and we have great minds, investors, scientists and everyone who has gathered here to find answers to our teething health problems across the continent,” said Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s National Vaccine Institute delivered the keynote address, highlighting the country’s efforts to strengthen vaccine manufacturing capacity and develop the health-sector talent needed to support Africa’s healthcare ambitions. He also outlined plans to produce Ghana’s first vaccines by 2027 as part of a broader vision to build resilient, locally driven healthcare systems.
Participants broke out into workshops focused on venture design, go-to-market strategy, and ecosystem networking, equipping innovators with practical tools to strengthen ideas, refine business models, and build valuable connections.
A recurring theme throughout the day was the importance of investment readiness and building ventures that can attract long-term support and scale sustainably. In an investor-led session, Nigel Nunoo of Africa Aspirations encouraged entrepreneurs to pair passion with preparation, stressing the importance of developing both a compelling narrative and a clear understanding of their financials. He reminded participants that investors often back founders as much as they back ideas, making leadership, credibility, and execution just as important as innovation itself.
The subsequent investor panel featuring Yaw Osei-Tutu of Impact Investing Ghana and Johnny Ray Fall of Equity Group Foundation explored opportunities within Africa’s growing health sector while highlighting the infrastructure and ecosystem support needed to help promising innovations scale and achieve lasting impact.
I am happy to be at this festival taking place in Ghana. I look forward to learning from a lot of innovators, exchanging ideas and showcasing our early-stage innovations at this Festival. We are meeting lots of other innovators and experts who are providing us with feedback and guidance to improve our solutions,“ said Flora Uwase, representative of RiseBeyond and a student at the African Leadership University.
A recurring theme I have taken away from the Africa Health Collaborative’s Health Innovation Festival is that collaboration is key; a strong network can enable you to scale beyond your local market into other markets once you achieve product-market fit, said Philemon Ondigo, representative of Echohealth Alerts and the University of Toronto.
The day concluded with immersive visits to Ashesi University and Yemaachi Biotech, offering participants firsthand exposure to Ghana’s growing innovation ecosystem. Participants toured laboratories and learned about Yemaachi’s pioneering work in genomics, artificial intelligence and precision medicine aimed at developing healthcare solutions tailored to African populations.
Co-hosted by Ashesi University and KNUST, the festival convenes health and business experts, students, entrepreneurs, and innovators from leading universities across Africa and Canada. Participating institutions include the University of Toronto, African Leadership University, Moi University, AMREF International University, the University of Cape Town, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and Addis Ababa University. The festival is delivered in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
Running from June 4–6, 2026, HIFest is structured around two innovation tracks designed to support entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey, from early-stage ideas seeking validation to ventures preparing for growth, investment, and market expansion. While one track helps participants transform ideas into prototypes and viable business models, the other supports early-stage ventures in refining market strategies and strengthening growth readiness.
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