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Orange announces winners of the African Social Venture Prize
[November 15, 2012]

Orange announces winners of the African Social Venture Prize


PARIS, Nov 15, 2012 /African Press Organization via COMTEX/ -- Orange (http://www.orange.com) announced the three winners of the African Social Venture Prize during the AfricaCom Awards ceremony held in Cape Town last night The three winners will receive financial assistance along with management and technical support from Orange specialists This is the second edition the Orange African Social Venture Prize has been awarded. The prize aims to support the development of entrepreneurs and start-ups offering solutions that use information and communication technologies (ICT) to meet the needs of people living in Africa.



Logo Orange: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/orange-logo.jpg Almost 450 candidates responded to the call for projects, which ran from May to September 2012, clearly demonstrating the underlying entrepreneurial vitality that exists on the African continent. Proposed projects spanned a variety of fields such as healthcare, agriculture, education, energy, industry and commerce illustrating the high potential of telecommunications for development in Africa.

The panel of judges, consisting of Orange specialists, the media and institutions that promote development, chose three prizewinners from among 13 nominated projects that were presented on Orange's pan-African web portal, http://www.starafrica.com*.


The awards ceremony was held yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, during the AfricaCom Awards, an annual event that recognizes the most significant innovations and achievements of the telecommunications industry in Africa.

The winning projects are: The first prize was awarded to Vivus Limited, a start-up from Côte d'Ivoire that allows agricultural or farm produce traders to optimize their stocks by adjusting to supply and demand, thereby avoiding waste. A SMS-based system provides traders with real-time information on the latest deals enabling them to order the exact quantity of stocks required. This system will contribute to the development of a more efficient and profitable trade-cycle.

The Takachar project, which has already been launched in Kenya, was awarded second prize. This provides an innovative system to improve waste management by using telecoms technologies to track waste collection in real time. This enables cooperatives to operate more efficiently and increases the proportion of organic waste that can be transformed into charcoal.

The third prize was awarded to the e-commerce business Niokobok. This business enables Senegalese people living abroad to send basic necessities to their families back home avoiding the extra cost of transferring money and enabling them to better manage their finances. Twenty-three references are already available for basic foods as well as hygiene and cleaning products.

In addition to funding of up to 25,000 euros, Orange will provide support to the three projects for six months from its local subsidiaries as well as expert advice from business and telecoms professionals.

In addition, a "favourite project" was selected by visitors of the Group's web portal StarAfrica. Over 50,000 visitors voted for the Egyptian start-up "Innovative Electronic Employment Platform". This innovative recruitment service uses an interactive platform and SMS alerts to help people seeking short-term jobs or freelance work to complement their revenues. StarAfrica will support this recruitment service throughout the year, in particular by providing additional online visibility.

Orange operates in 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East and has a total of over 78 million customers. To contribute to the social and economic development of these countries, the Group has put together the "Orange for Development" programme, which is based on three central themes: the development of its networks to maximize the number of people who are able to benefit from digital services; innovation to meet the needs of populations through value-added services in essential fields such as healthcare, education, agriculture and banking services; and contributing to the local development of ICT markets and innovation ecosystems.

It is to meet this last goal, which is aligned with both its innovation strategy as well as its Corporate Social Responsibility policy, that the Group decided to launch the Orange African Social Venture Prize in 2011.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Orange.

See the presentation of the competition on http://www.starafrica.com.

*About StarAfrica StarAfrica.com (http://www.starafrica.com) is Orange's pan-African web portal, which combines content from all sub-Saharan countries in its six channels - news, soccer, more sports, music, education and jobs - with a special focus on young talent. The portal is also the online store that provides expatriate communities with access to innovative communications services that allows them to stay in touch with their contacts.

About Orange France Telecom-Orange (http://www.orange.com) is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 45.3 billion euros for 2011 and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2012, including 105,000 employees in France. Present in 33 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 227 million customers at 30 September 2012, including 169 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): http://www.orange.com, http://www.orange-business.com, http://www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

Press contacts : +33 1 44 44 93 93 Tom Wright, [email protected] Mylène Blin, [email protected]

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