KelTex founders Laetus Buberwa and Emeliana Said have won the H&M Foundation's 2026 Global Change Award, placing East African design on the global sustainability map.
A Tanzanian duo, Laetus Buberwa and Emeliana Said, founders of KelTex, have won the H&M Foundation's 2026 Global Change Award — one of the fashion industry's most prestigious sustainability prizes.
The win places East African design squarely on the global sustainability map, and signals how the continent's innovation story is no longer confined to software.
KelTex's work points to a future in which the most consequential African exports are not goods but ideas — about how things should be made.
Sustainability, the award reminds us, is now an African design discipline.
Aisha Bello covers enterprise, innovation and the people building Africa's future, reporting from Nairobi and Lagos.
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