The Etisalat Nigeria Prize for Innovation seeks to promote the use of mobile broadband in Africa.

The inaugural ‘Etisalat Prize for Innovation’ is aimed at encouraging and celebrating valuable innovation in the African market and will be awarded in 2 categories; both prizes will be for driving or facilitating mobile broadband use in Africa. The first prize of $25,000 is for the most innovative product or service launched in the last 12 months and a second prize of $10,000 for the most innovative idea.

According to Steven Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, the ‘Etisalat Prize for Innovation’ Award seeks to reward corporate organizations, small and growing businesses as well as individuals developing advanced mobile broadband solutions and platforms in Africa. “The importance of Africa as a growth market for mobile broadband is clearly evident, as the continent remains the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world.

“We have launched this award because we realise the importance of innovative broadband projects, products and services which have improved the way we live and work. Innovation is core to our business strategy at Etisalat and we see ourselves as a young and innovative business setting the pace for others in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.”

Entries for the award must show demonstrable impact on broadband usage, impressive uptake from customers and would have made a visible commercial or social impact in the community. Entries are open to African Operators and Mobile Virtual Network Operators with innovative Broadband products or services using the GSM network family (2G GPRS & EDGE, 3G, HSPA, LTE), Handset and/or Device manufacturers, App Developers and other Software service providers making use of mobile broadband capability, Radio and Core network Infrastructure suppliers enabling broadband products and content developers.

Entries are now closed. Nominees will be announced in November 2012.