Orange Group has launched the call for applications for the fifth edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize. The winner of the “Favourite Project category” will have their project submitted directly to the jury along with the other project finalists to contend for the top three slots. These three projects will be awarded with grants of 10,000, 15,000 and 25,000 Euros, along with six months of mentorship from Orange. The winner will also receive free patent registration in the country of the project’s deployment.
The competition is open and free to any entrepreneur (aged 21 or over) or a legally recognized company that has been in existence for less than three years. Submitted projects must be designed for deployment in at least one of the 17 African countries in which Orange operates and must use ICT in an innovative way to help improve the living conditions of the people in these countries. The projects must meet the needs of Africans in Africa, in fields such as health, agriculture, education, energy, industry or trade to provide a lasting social impact. The applicants should submit their applications on Orange’s pan-African web portal, www.starafrica.com, by September 18, 2015. Voting will also be conducted online on the same website.
In the second edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize in 2012, the TAKACHAR project, a Kenya-based initiative, was the first runner up, taking home 15,000 Euros. TAKACHAR, which provides an innovative system to improve waste management by using telecommunication to track waste collection in real time, enables co-operatives to operate more efficiently and increase the proportion of organic waste that can be transformed into charcoal.