The Africa Connected success story contest, which awarded the top five inspiring and successful people in Africa who run community transforming projects using the internet and Google, has announced the below winners:
Sitawa Wafula (Kenya) – a blogger who made use of Google Blogger to start an award-winning blog on the topic of mental health in East Africa.
Eseoghene Odiete (Nigeria) – a designer who used Google Search and YouTube to learn how to create handbags, which now feature on over 100 blogs.
Panford Christopher (Ghana) – a transport company manager who empowers Ghanian drivers to gain access to car loans, and uses Google Maps to monitor bank loaned vehicles.
Eric Obuh (Nigeria) – a singer who went from dump sites scavenger to a worldwide sensation, due to exposure on YouTube.
Eunice Namirembe (Uganda) – doctor who used the Google API dashboard and Google Maps to build a 24-hour accessible ambulance call centre to improve access to health care services.
Selected from over 2,200 entries from 35 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by public vote, the winners each received $25,000 in prize money as well as an unexpected additional $10,000 from Google which will be put towards growing their ventures.
