On the 9th and 10th July 2026, the Cedi Conference Centre at the University of Ghana, Legon was brimming with excitement and ground breaking ideas. Under the theme “Building Tomorrow’s Ghana Through STEM And Youth Skills Development“, the 2026 GSTEP Ghana Science & Tech Explorer Prize (GSTEP) held its Exhibition and Awards Ceremony. 

The exciting 2-day event was the climax of a highly rigorous national competition that saw 60 finalists from 4 regions across Ghana battle it out for the ultimate prize. This year’s edition was also a milestone as the Volta region participated in it for the first time, joining schools from the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions. 

Funded by Fondation BOTNAR and implemented by the DrreamOval Foundation, GSTEP positions science, technology, engineering and mathematics as tools for solving real societal problems. 

The first day saw the students exhibiting their brilliant inventions to the public. The students amazed their audience with prototypes such as bricks made from recycled plastic, automated wheelchairs, biodegradable sanitary pads, locally manufactured incubators just to name a few, these young inventors proved that age had nothing to do with brilliance. 

A Village Behind the Innovators

The second day was focused on celebrating the effort of the students. During the awards ceremony, Mrs Aufa Oforiwaa Asiamah Adjei, the Executive Director of the DreamOval Foundation said GSTEP was created to help young people explore and build confidently. She explained that this event was proof of what can be created when an entire village supports young people. She also commended the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education for their role in integrating practical STEM education into the curriculum and pushing this initiative forward. 

A Shift in Learning

Delivering the keynote address, Hon Dr Clement, the Deputy Minister of Education praised GSTEP on their initiative. He declared that this was an end to the traditional “chew, pour, pass and forget” educational system. He praised the teachers for their efforts in preparing the students for the competition and urged the students not to fear failure as the future belonged to those who do not give up. 

Empowering Girls In STEM Spaces

Director of the Science Resource Center Mrs Olivia, commended the organizers for their initiative and the students for creativity and talent. She was particularly excited to see that more girls had taken up roles in the teams, showing the growing interest of young girls in the STEM field. Seeing young girls confidently take up active roles in leadership and handling prototypes with ease shows the wave of change that is ongoing in the STEM space. 

Before the awards were given out, the judges expressed their amazement at the prototypes the finalists had created. They urged the teams not to be disappointed if they did not win, because it didn’t mean their inventions were bad or not worthy.

Celebrating Excellence: Full List of Winners

The highlight of the event were the awards which were given out to teams, individuals,  coaches, teachers and mentors who helped make the event a successful one. There were 4 main categories and these had subcategories as well.  Here are the awards for this year:  

Outstanding Personalities Awards

• Footprint – Gloria and Michael
• Most outstanding teacher – Abraham goash 
• Outstanding business mentor- Mr Frimpong Kwame 
• Outstanding technical coach – Theophilus Obeng 
• Long serving recognition- Grace Quarshie 

Special Recognition Awards

• Perseverance application stage-Team eco star 
• Perseverance semi finalist stage – Team tiny hearts
• Social engagement giants – Team Family 
• Outstanding exhibition stand- Safe drive engineers
• People’s choice – Edusafe 
• Most improved prototype-Hightsolutions

Outstanding Teams Awards

• Community achievement – Biology brigade
• Excellence in business planning – Team Precious
• Best in material use – agritech flyers
• Founder’s choice – Marine protectors, Tech Explorers, Neomed eastern, Stemnovators 

Overall Awards

• Best pitch – Pulse Mobility
• Most innovative idea – Nova Engineers
• Excellence in applied science – Neuroplastix
• 2nd runner up- Science Whizzes
• 1st runner up – Innovapoch 
• Winner – Next Gen Coders

What Comes Next

For many of the finalists, what started as curiosity has turned into a huge impact. Not all teams can be the winners but that does not mean their inventions did not solve a problem. Speaking to some teams after the event, they disclosed that they would return to the drawing board to make improvements on their innovations and use them to resolve the challenges in their societies.