Announcing 2012 Winners: Africa Com Awards

The Africa Com Awards 2012 received more entries than ever before.  All of an extremely high calibre, this is a clear tribute to the exciting and innovative work that’s taken place in Africa over the past 12 months. 

Congratulations to all our worthy 2012 winners.

Africa Com Awards 2012 Winners

Best Network Improvement

Helios Towers Africa – Shared Telecoms Infrastructure

Most Innovative Service

Orange Group – Deezer

Best Quality User Experience

Sicap – Mobile Money ATM

Best Cost Efficiency Initiative

ZTE – Solution for Airtel

Rural Telecoms Award

Viettel – Movitel Rural Network

Best Backhaul Solution for Africa

Comtech EF Data – Mobile Backhaul Solution

Best Marketing Campaign

Prezence Digital – #Mandelastory

Best Smart-Device for Africa

Etisalat Misr – Smart Device

Best Pan African Initiative

WIOCC – Seamless, High-Capacity International Connectivity Ring around Africa

The 2012 Mobile Data and Social Media Award

Bozza Mobile – The Bozza.mobi App

Industry Personality of the Year

Alan Knott-Craig – Cell C

Changing Lives Award

Safaricom – DAKTARI-1525

Africa Apps Awards

Best Smart Phone App

Prezence Digital – Ster-Kinekor mobile app

Best Feature Phone App

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Orange African Social Venture Prize

Following the successful first edition in 2011, the Orange African Social Venture Prize has been awarded to three entrepreneurs or start-ups offering solutions that use ICT in innovative ways to meet the needs of people living in Africa.

The panel of judges, consisting of Orange specialists, the media and institutions that promote development, chose the three prize-winners from among almost 450 candidate projects covering a variety of fields such as healthcare, agriculture, education, energy, industry and commerce illustrating the high potential of telecommunications for development in Africa.

The winning projects are:

§  Vivus Limited, a start-up from Côte d'Ivoire that allows agricultural or farm produce traders to optimize their stocks, and thereby avoid waste, by using a SMS-based system providing information on ongoing deals.

§  Takachar provides a system that has already been launched in Kenya to improve waste management by using telecoms technologies to track waste collection in real time.

§  The e-commerce business Niokobok enables Senegalese people living abroad to send basic necessities to their families back home avoiding the extra cost of transferring money.

Etisalat Prize for Innovation

The ‘Etisalat Nigeria Prize for Innovation’ seeks to promote the utilisation of mobile broadbansd in Africa.  The inaugural ‘Etisalat Prize for Innovation is aimed at encouraging and celebrating valuable innovation in the African market and will awarded in two categories; the first prize of $25, 000 for the most innovative product or service launched in the last 12months and a second prize of $10,000 for the most innovative idea. 

Etisalat believes innovation should go beyond improvements in existing products and services and instead have real valuable social or economic impact to customers.

Winner of first prize of $25, 000 is Mobile Maths Practice

Winner of second prize of $10,000 iConnect Project

Speaking on the success of the competition which witnessed an impressive array of entries for the two award categories, Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, explained that the competition was instituted to provide the opportunity for innovative and relevant mobile broadband products/services and ideas.

He said, “We are delighted at the creativity shown by all the entries and this is a clear indication of the importance of broadband in Africa. Innovative broadband projects, products and services have improved the way we live and work and so we launched this award because we realise the importance of broadband in the industry. Innovation is core to our business strategy at Etisalat Nigeria and we see ourselves as a young and innovative business setting the pace for others in the Nigerian telecommunications industry”.

Mobile Maths Practice – a mobile application to help students around the globe prepare for maths exams.  The invention relates to wireless communications and methods and systems in which a wireless service provider may offer wireless data messages to mobile subscribers.

iConnect Project – supplies mobile broadband internet connection vehicles to schools in a variety of geo-locations.  The vehicles are refurbished shipping containers connected to a truck head and are fully mobile and are therefore scheduled into a school’s timetable which enables sharing and full connectivity.

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About AfricaCom Awards

The AfricaCom Awards celebrate and reward excellence in the African Telecommunications Market.  Now in its 5^th year, the Awards ceremony is the high-point of the AfricaCom conference and exhibition.  http://www.africacomawards.com

About AfricaCom  2012

AfricaCom is Africa’s largest communications conference & exhibition.  Now in its 15^th year, this trailblazing event gathers together 8,000 senior decision-makers from the telecoms, media and ICT industries.  This year a record 200+ speakers will share their vision of Africa’s future communications landscape and the agenda has expanded to incorporate 14 co-located events which will attract new audiences from the apps development, broadcast and business sectors. For more info see: www.comworldseries.com/africa.

About Orange

France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 45.3 billion euros for 2011 and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2012, including 105,000 employees in France. Present in 33 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 227 million customers at 30 September 2012, including 169 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

About Etisalat

In just 4 years of operations, Etisalat Nigeria has become a major industry player with a growing subscriber base of over 14 million in a highly competitive market. Its portfolio of voice and data-centric products include – easy starter, easycliq, easybusiness, and easyblaze; all tailor-made to meet the needs of its customers. For its outstanding performance, it has won several awards including ‘Brand of the Year’, ‘Best Telecom Customer Service’ Telecom Innovations Company of the Year, and ‘Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Company’, among others. Etisalat Nigeria is one of the 16 operations of the Etisalat Group that spans across Africa, Middle East and Asia serving over 170 million subscribers; and it is committed to delivering innovative and quality services to its growing subscribers.