This seems to be the season of challenges, competitions and conventions. Orange has launched Orange African Social Venture Prize. This will be the second edition and the goal of the challenge is to promote social innovation that supports development through information and communication technology (ICT) to meet the needs of populations in Africa.
Projects proposed during the first edition covered a variety of fields, such as healthcare, agriculture, banking services and education. Over 600 entries were received and hopefully more will be submitted for the second edition exhibiting the african entrepreneurial drive.
Orange is a telecomms company committed to financially supporting and offering its expertise to the management of SMEs. The cash prizes range from €10 000 to €25 000, the top three prize-winners will receive six months of support from entrepreneurial and ICT experts alongside their cash prizes. In addition, a “favorite project”, selected by visitors of the group’s web portal, will be highlighted before the jury responsible for selecting the winning projects.
Participants must be over 21 years old, students, entrepreneurs or companies in activity since June 2009. There is no entry fee. The businesses or projects submitted however, are required to target at least one of the African countries of Orange’s footprint which are listed below and must use ICT in an innovative way to help improve the living conditions of the populations in these countries.
Orange has commercial operations in 17 countries in Africa. By promoting social ventures, Orange aims at raising awareness about the role that Information and Communication Technologies can play in development.
The Orange African footprint comprises of these countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Botswana. Unfortunately, Nigeria is not listed but Nigerians can still put their entries in. For more information send a mail to orange.socialventure@starafrica.com
Entry closes on September 21st 2012.
I am the lookout for African companies who are giving back to the continent while nurturing the SMEs around them and by the way, why are you not following me on Twitter?
