(Ecofin Agency) - Ivorian Mgbékpon Sévi Samuel is the winner of the special prize of the 2015 Young Inventor prize ceremony. The 21-years old youth who was awarded a prize of CFA 1million francs was rewarded thanks to an invention which would help protect rubber harvests during the rainy season: the rubber cup collector protector.

The inspiration for the device, which looks like a rubber umbrella attached to the tapped tree, came from listening to his grandfather complain about the poor quality of the harvest during the rainy season. The mixture of rain water and rubber tree latex results in a product of inferior quality.

According the website Abidjan.net, this invention will help solve a major problem for a sector with a projected turnover of CFA 31 billion francs by 2019.

Sponsored by the Program for the Strategic Support of Scientific Research (PASRES), the young inventor prize is in its second year in Côte d'Ivoire. Explaining the aims of this program, its executive secretary Pr Yaya Sangaré declared: "this is about showcasing the talents and potentials of young inventors. But beyond these qualities, the organisation of this prize is about assisting in the mobilisation of material, human and financial resources for the economic promotion of the invention on display".