Orange is launching the third Orange African Social Venture Prize, which promotes social innovations in support of development that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).Orange, present in Botswana and 17 other African countries, boasts over 70 million customers, and is seeking to become a major player in the economic and social development of every one of these countries. The Group has decided to contribute to the development of the local markets for new technologies through its 'Orange for Development' programme and to propose innovative solutions, which meet the needs of the local population. It is in this context, and as part of its innovation strategy as well as its Corporate Social Responsibility policy that the Group has decided to launch the Orange African Social Venture Prize. As part of the Group, Orange Botswana endeavours on the same objectives.The call for projects has received more than 1,000 applications over the past two years, a figure that reflects a true entrepreneurial spirit and the potential for telecommunications on the African continent.
Encouraging the use of ICTs for development
This year, the Orange African Social Venture Prize will once again reward three entrepreneurs or start-ups offering products or services that make innovative use of ICTs to meet the needs of people on the African continent's various fields such as healthcare, agriculture, education, energy, industry and trade. For example, the prize-winning projects in 2012 involved mobile technology used to assist traders in food products in Ivory Coast (Vivuus Limited), a system launched in Kenya to improve the treatment of waste (Takachar) and the creation of an e-commerce site to allow people in the Senegalese Diaspora to shop online for their families in Dakar.This year, Internet users will once again be able to vote online for their favourite project using the Orange portal in Africa www.StarAfrica.com.
