Orange announces winners of its Social Entrepreneur Prize

Orange hosted their 7th Social Entrepreneur Prize 2017 in Africa and the Middle East on 8 November during the AfricaCom Awards held in Cape Town.

Every year the prize is awarded to the most innovative projects within Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that improve the living conditions of local people through digital.

Common fields often include education, healthcare, farming, mobile payments, or sustainable developments.

This year’s prize included a new feature – a national phase during which each of Orange’s 17 subsidiaries taking part studied the projects submitted in their respective countries and appointed local winners.

The application call received nearly 1,200 entries, 60% more than 2017.

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The first prize went to Manzer Partazer in Madagascar, with its objective being to reduce food waste by sharing excess food waste with disadvantaged populations. The project won a bursary of €25,000.

City Taps in Niger came second for its solution to the gap between water services and disadvantaged citizens, winning €15,000.

Third place went to eFret.tn in Tunisia, a website that links senders with transport and transit professionals, earning €10,000.

Orange’s 17 subsidiaries are: Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Jordan, Liberia and Burkina Faso.