Cape Town, Wednesday 9 November 2011 – At a well turned out and fully attended gala evening, Informa Media & Telecoms, organisers of the AfricaCom Awards and AfricaCom Congress 2011, partnered with leading pan-African operator Orange for the launch of the African Social Venture Prize
The Prize was launched by Orange in June to support entrepreneurs and start-ups who use information and communication technologies (ICT) to meet the needs of African people. More than 600 candidates responded to the call for projects, which ran from June to September 2011, a sign of true entrepreneurial vitality on the African continent. Proposed projects spanned a variety of fields, including health, agriculture, education, financial services and e-commerce illustrating the potential of telecommunications in African development.
Marc Rennard, Executive Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at Orange, said ”The Orange African Social Venture Prize was a great success, with more than 600 applications. Orange is proud to promote these local initiatives which contribute to the social and economic development of the countries where we operate.”
The winning projects were the following:
- The first prize went to the Nigerien project Horticultural Remote Irrigation system, which puts mobile technology in the hands of horticulturists, farmers and cooperatives for remote crop irrigation, allowing them to improve productivity while preserving water resources.
- AgaSha Business Network, which won the second prize, is a Ugandan start-up that uses the Internet to help small and medium African companies grow. Through its online business community, it facilitates interaction among economic players to boost market opportunities for small and medium businesses in Africa and abroad.
- Third place went to Kachile, a start-up in Côte d’Ivoire. With its e-commerce platform, it offers a way to “professionalize” cottage industries, which are well developed in Africa but lack visibility and market access.
In addition to funding of up to 25,000 euros, Orange will provide support to the three projects for six months from its local subsidiaries and the strategic expertise of its venture capital subsidiary, Innovacom.
The Prize was awarded during the AfricaCom Awards ceremony held yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa. The AfricaCom Awards celebrate and reward excellence in the African Telecommunications Market. Now in its 4th year, the Awards ceremony is the high-point of the first day of the AfricaCom conference and exhibition. The Awards included categories for all aspects of the telecoms, media and ICT sector. The winners were :
- Best network improvement: MTN South Africa for its Long Term Evolution pilot
- Best New Service: Orange Surf & Pay
- Best Cost Efficiency Initiative for Africa : Helios Towers Africa
- Rural Telecoms Award : Ericsson Rural Netco
- Best Backhaul Solution for Africa : Huawei Technologies for Building IP Backhaul in South Africa
- Customer Service Excellence Awards : Gateway Communications Customer Service
- Best Marketing Campaign : MTN South Africa for MTN Zone
- Satellite Service Provider of the Year : SkyVision
- Best ICT Solution Provider for Enterprise Markets In Africa : SafariCom‘Tele Justice’
- Best Pan African Initiative : Seacom & Main One
- Changing Lives Awards : SafariCom M-PESA Pay Bill Service used for a Nationwide fundraising Initiative
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About AfricaCom Awards
The AfricaCom Awards celebrate and reward excellence in the African Telecommunications Market. Now in its 4th year, the Awards ceremony is the high-point of the first day of the AfricaCom conference and exhibition. Over 40 leading telecoms marques have been honoured with an award in the past and this year’s competition is stronger than ever.
For more information on how to enter or any other aspect please contact Louisa Rogers, Marketing Director on Louisa.rogers@informa.com or +44 (0) 207 017 5157
About AfricaCom 2011
AfricaCom is Africa’s largest communications conference & exhibition. Now in its 14th year, this trailblazing event gathers together 5,000 senior decision-makers from the telecoms, media and ICT industries. This year a record 150+ speakers will share their vision of Africa’s future communications landscape and the agenda has expanded to incorporate 2 brand new events – AfricaCast and Enterprise ICT Africa – which will attract new audiences from the broadcast and business sectors respectively.
For more information please contact Louisa Rogers, Marketing Director on Louisa.rogers@informa.com or +44 (0) 201 017 5157
