ICT News South Africa

AfricaCom Awards 2016 winners list

The winners of this year's AfricaCom Awards were announced yesterday evening at the LookOut in Cape Town. The annual industry awards for the African telecommunications, ICT and media sector celebrate and pay tribute to the industry initiatives that improve connectivity and digital transformation across the continent.

There were over 100 entries with 13 overall winners.

Adam Thompson from KNect365 TMT said: “This year’s awards saw an exceptional shortlist of entries. The judging panel were thoroughly impressed with the quality of entries and the range of industry projects carried out. These awards allow us to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts presented by industry players and to motivate others to continually develop game-changing and innovative projects. There were definitely some stand-out winners this year, with Ghanaian projects scooping three awards.”

Initiatives in Ghana over the year proved successful projects with operators Tigo Ghana scooping two awards including the widely coveted Changing Lives Award for their Mobile Birth Registration project. Keeping the Ghanaian presence strong Ebenezer Twum Asante of MTN Ghana scooped the CEO of the year. The judges’ most notable entry came from BRCK with their Kio Kit - Digital Classroom in a Box which won Best Pan-African Initiative.

Judging panel

The awards judging panels consisted of: Russell Southwood, chief executive, Balancing Act; Thecla Mbongue, senior analyst, Ovum; Danson Njue, research analyst, Ovum; Tom Jackson, co-founder, Disrupt Africa; Lynette Hundermark, co-founder & chief product officer, Useful & Beautiful; Matthew Reed, principal analyst, MEA, Ovum, Arthur Goldstuck, MD, World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief, Gadget; Scott Bichino, editorial director at Telecoms.com; Bradley Shaw, regional manager - Middle East and Africa at NuRan Wireless and Prakash Patel, chief strategy officer, Fogg Experiential Design Cape Town.

And the winners are...

Category NameCompany nominatedProduct name
Best Marketing CampaignLiquid TelecomAfriCan
Best App for AfricaMauritius TelecomTraffic Watch Mauritius
Best Cost Efficiency Solution for AfricaOrangeOrange MEA Open Tech Hub
Most Significant LTE DevelopmentMTC & Huawei TechnologiesCommercial LTE-A Network in Namibia
Best Connectivity Solution for AfricaWorld Telecom LabsVivada for rural wholesale networks
Best Network ImprovementPCCW GlobalMEF Certified Ethernet Service
Orange Social Venture PrizeMedTrucks MoroccoDeployment of Mobile Care Units
Best Mobile Financial ServiceMahindra ComvivaAirtel Money “Tap Tap” Tanzania powered by Nearex and Mahindra Comviva’ s mobiquity® Money
Delivering Excellence in Customer ExperienceHuawei TechnologiesBest User Experience with Huawei CEM
Most Innovative Service " The Business of Tomorrow"Airtel AfricaAirtel Advanced Call Completion (Adcom)
Best Pan-African InitiativeBRCKKio Kit - Digital Classroom in a Box
CEO of the year awardMTN GhanaEbenezer Twum Asante
Changing Lives Award Tigo GhanaMobile Birth Registration

Criteria and entry dates for the AfricaCom 2017 season will be announced in early next year 2017.

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