19 May 2016

Orange Botswana has launched the annual Orange Social Venture Prize competition scheduled to run from May 18  until September 21.

According to a news release from Orange Botswana, the Orange Social Venture Prize is aimed at stimulating innovation through showcasing entrepreneurship that offers innovative products and services that meet the needs of Africans in fields such as health, agriculture, education, energy, industry and trade.

“Over the past five years, 2 000 projects have been submitted for the Orange African Social Venture Prize, reflecting the dynamism of African entrepreneurs and the potential of the telecommunications sector in Africa,” states the release.

It further says that through this initiative, Orange aims to be the digital partner of start-ups in Africa and the Middle-East.According to Orange Botswana Foundation and PR manager, Boga Chilinde-Masebu, the project aims at promoting social innovation for development through information and communication technologies.

“By promoting social ventures, Orange aims at raising awareness about the role that Information and Communication Technologies can play in development,” she says.

The release states that the Orange Social Venture Prize will reward four projects or enterprises addressing the needs of the bottom of the pyramid market in Africa and the Middle-East through technology.It explains that the digital projects may range from e-health and mobile banking to digital and mobile applications for education or agriculture. In addition, the winning project should represent huge opportunities for social development.

Furthermore it says to enter the competition, participants must be more than 21 years old, they can either be students, entrepreneurs running companies with no more than three years on the launch day of the competition.

“We insist on participants being newly formed businesses because one of the major objectives of this initiative is to support start-up companies in our affiliate countries. With that in mind, proposed projects must target an Orange affiliate in Africa and the Middle East with their core business using technology in an innovative way to enhance living conditions of local populations,” says Chilinde-Masebu. ENDS