President Bill Clinton will speak at the 2023 Aviram Awards ceremony in Marrakech on May 16. The competition’s finalists are five trailblazing businesspeople from North Africa and the Middle East.

The MENA region’s firms that have the potential to dramatically effect social and environmental change through innovation and technology are to be identified, mentored, and supported by the event, which is coordinated by the Forbes and Aviram Foundations.

The finalists for this year were chosen by the international judging panel, which was moved by their concepts for revolutionary technology that will advance civilization.

According to a Forbes press release, three of the contenders are from Israel, one is from Morocco, and the finalist is from Saudi Arabia.

The ambassador of the kingdom is Youssef Bouyakhf, CEO and co-founder of Deepecho, who uses AI to enable scan technicians with limited background in advanced video diagnosis. Birth defects can be found using deepecho.

Rodrigo Jimenez Sandoval, the CEO and co-founder of Polymeron, produces biodegradable and compostable plastic pellet formulations using organic waste from the chicken and date farming industries as a raw material.

He runs a business called Polymeron in Saudi Arabia.

In addition to providing solutions for the Middle Eastern region’s issues with the disposal of organic waste and food security, Sandoval’s technologies address the problem of plastic pollution.

Hilla Ben-Pazi, CEO and co-founder of StrokeAlert in Israel, developed a wearable neck monitoring device that may automatically send alarms for stroke, allowing for early diagnosis and treatment.

Gil Davidman, the CEO of QD-SOL in Israel, uses photocatalysts and sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, producing green, affordable hydrogen without relying on power grids.

The last contestant is Israeli CEO and Co-Founder Dan Deviri of Carbon Blue.

His company pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere by providing a way to extract it from the water. The technology is affordable, portable, and eco-friendly. It requires extremely minimal maintenance and neither feedstock nor logistics are required.

“The winning start-up will receive a financial reward of $500,000, professional mentoring from famous businessman and founder of the Aviram Foundation, Ziv Aviram, as well as media support from Forbes. The winning start-up must be based on an inventive breakthrough and a commitment to humanity. According to Forbes, the third-place winner will receive a prize of $50,000 and the second-place winner will receive a prize of $100,000.

The finalists will have the chance to present their concepts live on stage in front of a distinguished business leadership jury in Marrakech.

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Morocco’s HPS Company was included in Forbes Middle East’s recently released list of the Top 30 Fintech Companies in the region.

Following in the footsteps of Kuwait’s One Global and the UAE’s Sarwa online investment platform, HPS, a prominent global provider of complete payment solutions, won the 17th spot on Forbes’ coveted list.

Since its founding in 1995 by Mohamed Horani, Abdeslam Alaoui Smaili, Samir Khallouqui, and Driss Sabbahe, HPS has grown to be a formidable force in the payment industry, offering payment solutions to a variety of clients, including card processors, financial institutions, retailers, national and regional switches, wallet providers, energy providers, insurance providers, and MNOs.

According to the Forbes website, more than 450 institutions in over 90 countries presently use the company’s entire suite of payment options, known as “PowerCARD.”

In order to prepare for this year’s expansion into North America, HPS’s revenue climbed by a startling 20.8% in 2022, reaching a stunning $96 million. As of March 22, the business, which is traded on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, has a $435 million market cap.

This may have been a surprising addition to the list, but Egypt’s Fawry, which specializes in financial technology and electronic payments, was named this year’s Top Fintech Business. With over 280,000 agents and an amazing network of 36 member institutions, Fawry has devoted countless hours to serving 49.4 million consumers and processing transactions worth an astounding $6.8 billion in 2022 alone.

The UAE-based startup YAP, a financial app that caters to both consumers and businesses, finished off the Top 30 list at number 30. According to the number of app downloads, the number of countries in which the businesses operate, and the amount of money that would be transacted via digital channels in 2022, Forbes MENA came up with the rankings. The companies’ year-over-year growth as well as their effects on industry and customers were taken into consideration when ranking them. According to Forbes MENA, payment companies dominated this year’s list.

Read Also: Ceuta and Melilla spark a spat between Morocco’s House of Councillors and Spain’s Defense Minister

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This year’s Forbes list of the top 100 businesswomen in the Middle East features 104 women from 27 different nationalities who work in 27 various industries. Five Moroccans were chosen.

Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch, the head of Aksal Group and a well-known businesswoman in Morocco, came in at number seventeen.

The pioneer in high-end retail in Morocco is Aksal.

Moroccan woman in business 19th place went to Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun of the Mineral Waters Oulmes group.

Rita Maria Zniber, the CEO of Diana Holding, is listed at position 33.

The Sothema group’s president and CEO, Lamia Tazi, came in at number 65.

Sada Karim Lamrani, executive vice-president of Safari-Sofipar holding, is the last Moroccan on the list and is listed in 80th place. He is the fifth Moroccan overall.

Banking and financial services take the top spot on the list with 23 participations, followed by diversified companies with 11 participations, investment with 8 participations, retail with 6 participations, and health care with 5 participations.

The UAE topped the list with 15 businesswomen, followed by Egypt with 12, Saudi Arabia with 11, Kuwait with 8, Lebanon, Qatar, and the Sultanate of Oman with 6 each, and Morocco with 5. The list also included entries from Lebanon, Qatar, and the Sultanate of Oman.

According to Forbes, some of the biggest companies in the Middle East and North Africa are run by women.

As CEO of the First Abu Dhabi Bank Group Hana Al Rostamani and Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group Raja Easa Al Gurg were named to Forbes’ list of the 100 most powerful women in the world for 2022, they became among the most influential female leaders in the world.

Huda Kattan, the well-known founder of the internationally recognized makeup line “Huda Beauty,” came in at number thirty.

The influence of the profile on the region and the markets it serves, their accomplishments and performance over the previous year, the number and scope of sustainability and CSR initiatives they have led, their designation, their company’s size in terms of revenue, assets, and stock market capitalization, and the number of employees were all taken into account when Forbes Middle East magazine created its ranking.

The five Moroccans who made the list are all involved in noteworthy and diverse businesses in their home nation.

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Nigeria maintains the top spot in the ranking of the largest economies in Africa in 2021, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expecting the country to record a GDP of $ 514.05 billion by the end of this year, followed by Egypt, which ranks second for the second year in a row, with a GDP of $ 394.28 billion.

South Africa comes in third place with a GDP of $ 329.53 billion, followed by Algeria, with a value of $ 151.46 billion, and Morocco, with a value of $ 124 billion, bearing in mind that the gross domestic product is measured at current prices.

The GDP of the five countries – at current prices – is likely to grow by 11.8% this year to reach $ 1.5 trillion compared to $ 1.35 trillion last year, as these countries represent 58% of the total GDP of the entire continent, which will reach $ 2.6 trillion.

Last week, the IMF announced, on the sidelines of the Africa Summit in Paris, that the continent needs additional funding of $ 285 billion until 2025 to ensure an effective response to the pandemic crisis. These are the measures taken by the continent’s largest economies in accordance with international financing institutions to enhance the expected recovery from the repercussions of this year’s pandemic.

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