Orange Reveals The Winners Of The 10th Edition Of The Orange Africa And Middle East Social Entrepreneur Prize

Orange, the multinational telecommunications corporation has revealed the winners of the Orange Africa and Middle East Social Entrepreneur Prize.

The prize is an initiative by Orange which recognizes technological projects with a positive impact to improve living conditions, and is open to innovators in the tech space such as education, healthcare, agriculture, mobile payments and sustainable development.

In addition to the International Grand Prix that has historically rewarded three prize winners with prizes ranging from €10,000 (3rd place) to €25,000 (1st place), Orange has added two new prizes for this edition:

• The International Women's Prize with a value of €20,000, supported by the Orange Group Diversity and Inclusion unit
• The Special 10th Anniversary Prize with a value of €10,000.

A project was also awarded the special, "Jury's Favorite" prize.

After a round of domestic competitions in the 17 African Orange subsidiaries during which 41 winners were identified and supported, 18 finalists were selected to enter the international competition which took place at the AfricaTech Festival, the biggest technology fair in Africa. At the end of the presentations, the jury, comprising experts on social entrepreneurship in Africa, met to decide on the winners of the 10th edition of the competition.

For the International Grand Prix, the 3 winners were:

• 1st prize: Ahkili (Tunisia) , an innovative psychological assistance telephone hotline covering the whole of North Africa, available seven days a week to facilitate contact with qualified psychologists without having to make an appointment.
• 2nd prize: Teliman (Mali) the first Malian on-demand motorbike taxi service in Bamako.
• 3rd prize: Weeglo (Liberia) (oran.ge/3eGvkzH) a project offering an online learning solution specific to the Liberian education system.

For the International Women's Prize, the winning project was:

• Ahmini (Tunisia) , a digital platform to facilitate access for rural women to the Tunisian welfare and healthcare system.

For the Special 10th Anniversary Prize, the winner was:

• Toto Riibô (Burkina Faso) , a Burkinabé service for ordering and delivery of meals cooked by women stallholders in the streets of Ouagadougou.

This year, one particular project caught the eye of the international jury, who decided to award it the Jury's Favourite Prize. The winner was:

• SOBATIC (Burkina Faso) , an organisation that provides training and also designs IT tools for people with impaired vision.