AfricaCom 2014 took place from 11 to 13 November 2014 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The winners of the 2014 AfricaCom Awards were announced on 12 November. The organisers report that the awards, which recognise and acknowledge excellence in the digital technology, ICT, Telecommunications and Media across Africa, have grown in stature every year with a record number of entries submitted this year.
The winners are:
1. Best App for Africa – Bharti Airtel – internet.org.app
2. Best Connectivity Solutions for Africa – WIOCC – Connecting Somalia – Closing the final link
3. Best Cost Efficiency Solutions for Africa – Huawei – Africa’s first SDN innovation: MTN TT Project
4. Best Device for Africa – Solarway – Solar powered mobile phone charging station
5. Best Marketing Campaign – Huawei – MTN’s Nelson Mandela Birthday’s 67 minutes campaign
6. Best Mobile Money Solution – Bharti Airtel – Airtel Money
7. Best Network Improvement – WIOCC – Extending WIOCC’s Pan-African network into Somalia
8. Best Pan-African Initiative – Liquid Telecom – East Africa Fibre Ring
9. Breakthrough LTE Development – Ericsson – Unitel
10. Changing Lives Award – Afrigis – Gender based violence command centre (GBVCC)
11. Excellence in Customer Experience Management – Orange – “100% Successful Calls’ suite of services
12. Most Innovative Service – Millicom Tanzania – Tigo Pesa – International Mobile Money Transfer
13. VSAT Innovation for Africa – Liquid Telecom – Shared MPLS Satellite service.
14. Etisalat Pan-African Prize for Innovation 2014 winner of IDEA – MEMMCOL (interactive media interface design i.e. IMID) a design to enable consumers remotely monitor their Energy Meters.
15. Etisalat Pan-African Prize for Innovation 2014 winner of PRODUCT – EXAM MATE – an exam preparatory software, specifically for Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board exams (JAMB).
16. The Orange Social venture Prize 2014:
Out of the 452 submitted projects the following prize winners were selected:
• The first prize has been awarded to Modisar Botswana. The project is a livestock farm management application (desktop, web and mobile) that makes it easy for a farmer to manage his\her farm.
• The second prize has been awarded to Station Cote d’Ivoire. Station Energy is a shop equipped with photovoltaic panels to provide various shared services (rental batteries allowing access to lighting, renting cold spaces, Internet access, sales of low consumption equipment, etc.) in rural or urban areas.
• The third prize has been awarded to Bouquet Pass Sante Senegal. This project is a platform that allows the diaspora or persons residing in Senegal, to pay medical consultation for you or for a loved one directly online.
• The Orange Partner API prize has been awarded to The Twinklebox Project in Kenya. Twinkle box combines mobile technology with solar technology, allowing Kenyan customers to buy scratch cards to pay for energy.
