AfricaCom announce 2012 Winners

Last night (14th of November,2012), the 5th annual AfricaCom Awards went off with a bang providing an evening of entertainment that attendees described as the best yet.

After a superb opening from comedian MC Nic Rabinowitz the audience, the awards were announced.

Image source: http://storify.com

Helios Towers Africa – Shared Telecoms Infrastructure emerged as the The Best Network Improvement while Orange Group – Deezer, Sicap – Mobile Money ATM, ZTE – Solution for Airtel, Viettel – Movitel Rural Network, Comtech EF Data – Mobile Backhaul Solution and Prezence Digital – #Mandelastory emerged as the Most Innovative Service, Best Quality User Experience, Best Cost Efficiency Initiative, Rural Telecoms Award, Best Backhaul Solution for Africa and Best Marketing Campaign respectively.

Other winners are: Etisalat Misr – Smart Device emerge as the Best Smart-Device for Africa, Best Pan African Initiative was won by WIOCC – Seamless, High-Capacity International Connectivity Ring around Africa. The 2012 Mobile Data and Social Media Award went to Bozza Mobile – The Bozza.mobi App, while Alan Knott-Craig – Cell C and Safaricom – DAKTARI-1525 also won Industry Personality of the Year and Changing Lives Award respectively.

Africa Apps Awards 2012 Best Smart Phone App went to Prezence Digital – Ster-Kinekor mobile app and Best Feature Phone App went to biNu.

Orange African Social Venture Prize - the winning projects are: Vivus Limited, a start-up from Côte d’Ivoire that allows agricultural or farm produce traders to optimize their stocks, and thereby avoid waste, by using a SMS-based system providing information on ongoing deals.Takachar provides a system that has already been launched in Kenya to improve waste management by using telecoms technologies to track waste collection in real time.The e-commerce business Niokobok enables Senegalese people living abroad to send basic necessities to their families back home avoiding the extra cost of transferring money.

Etisalat Prize for Innovation winner of first prize of $25, 000 is Mobile Maths Practice and second prize of $10,000 is iConnect Project.

Congratulations to 2012′s Champions!