Orange has announced the winners of the 7th Orange Social Entrepreneur Prize 2017 in Africa and the Middle East.
Each year this Prize rewards innovative projects based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) which help improve the living conditions of local people through digital, in fields such as education, healthcare, farming, mobile payments or sustainable development.
The three winners will receive bursaries of €25,000, €15,000 and €10,000 and the Special Content Prize winner will receive €5,000. The finalists of the Orange Social Entrepreneur Prize will also enjoy priority support for six months from the NGO Grow Movement and Orange experts.
1st prize was awarded to Manzer Partazer in Madagascar.
The Malagasy startup aims to reduce food waste by sharing excess food from restaurants, hotels or supermarkets with partner organisations such as orphanages and disadvantaged populations. A collaborative platform will allow direct communication between different stakeholders.
2nd prize was awarded to City Taps in NigerCityTaps has developed a solution which bridges the gap between water services and the most disadvantaged citizens: a pre-payment service which includes a smart water meter and billing software.The beneficiaries use their mobile to prepay for running water with any mobile phone, at any time, for any amount, which improves their household budget.
3rd prize was awarded to eFret.tn in Tunisia.
eFret.tn is a website based on the freight exchange principle. It links up senders, whether private individuals or companies, with transport and transit professionals in Tunisia. The senders publish adverts describing their needs and receive free quotations from carriers, movers, international transport companies and customs forwarding agents.
This year a Special Content Prize was awarded to: Génie Edu in Cameroon, an e-learning platform which aims to help students having problems by providing online video courses. The startup wants every student, including those in remote areas, to have access to high-quality courses at a very low cost, anytime and anywhere.
The voters “User Favourite” project was Majika which received over 2,800 votes out of 12,242 votes online. Majika is a social company aiming to facilitate economic development conditions in rural zones. It is based on two areas: access to renewable electricity and support for rural entrepreneurship. Majika works on an autonomous and ecological power plant in the village of Ampasindava.
Previous winners include MedTrucks (2016) supports healthcare players with the deployment of smart trucks which use remote medicine to provide medical treatment in remote areas.
The 2015 winner Bassita, a clickfunding helps firms submit their social, cultural or environmental project on its platform. If it reaches its click target after being shared on social networks, the project obtains a donation from a sponsor.
Station Energy ,the 2014 winner provides access to energy via franchises on a large scale and at an affordable cost.
