Below is the press release from AfricaCom:
Announcing the 2018 AfricaCom Awards winners
London, 15 November 2018 –The AfricaCom Awards show, supported by Founding Awards Sponsor, PCCW Global, was a colourful and festive Mardi Gras themed event last night. Held in Cape Town during AfricaCom, guests celebrated and acknowledged those trailblazers who are leading digital inclusion, connectivity and digital development on the African Continent.
“AfricaCom continues to grow and with it the Awards,” commented Tom Cuthell, Event Director of AfricaCom. “I would like to thank everyone involved, our judging panel who rigorously vetted the entries, sponsors and partners for their ongoing support and all the companies who continue to show how dedicated they are to ensuring that Africa advances into the digital ecosphere.”
Here are the AfricaCom Awards stars for 2018:
Best Network Improvement – Liquid Telecom – Completion of the Cape to Cairo fibre route
Delivering Excellence in Customer Experience – Huawei Technologies – Customer Experience Management (CEM) for Ghana
Fintech Innovation Award – Econet Wireless (Cassava Fintech) and Mahindra Comviva – EcoCash Merchant Payments powered by mobiquity Money
Most Innovative use of AI Technology – Huawei Technologies – Huawei PowerStar
Most Innovative Service – Orange – Rural Electrification
Changing Lives Award – Ericsson and Wot-if? Trust – eHUB Diepsloot South Africa
Best Sustainable Power Solution – Huawei Technologies – Huawei PowerCube 1000
IoT Product / Service of the year – Yego Innovision Limited – Yegomoto
Digital Entertainment Solution – Kwesé iflix – Best Innovation in Digital Entertainment
Also, winners on the night of two very special peer-voted awards were: Abdikarim Mohamed Eid – CEO, Telesom who was acknowledged as the AfricaCom CXO of the Year and, Priya Thakoor – Chief Digital Officer, Coca-Cola South Africa who was recognised for outstanding achievements in driving ‘Digital Africa’ forward and walked away with the award for the AfricaCom Enterprise CXO of the Year.
Cuthell concluded by saying: “Congratulations to all of the award winners. The bar has been set high and we all look forward to seeing what next year holds.”
Econet Globa had three awards in total: Liquid Telecom, their Pan African connectivity and infrastructure player was awarded with the ‘Best Network Improvement award. They delivered on their promise of Cape to Cairo connection and thus got recognised for it.
The surprise recipient of a ‘Digital Entertainment Solution’ award was Kwese iFlix which is a product by Econet Media.
Ecocash together with their technology partner, Mahindra Comviva were presented with the ‘Innovative Fintech Award.’ This was for the Ecocash merchant payments solution. This is something we take for granted sometimes but is quite revolutionary.
By the way, the story of Ecocash is a worthy case study of how to launch products in African markets. You can buy Techzim Insights’ write up on how Ecocash came to dominate Zimbabwe’s fintech space without it even being the first nor the second mobile money solution in the market. Buy the write-up for only $19.99 via Ecocash below. For other forms of payment you can email insights@techzim.co.zw:
2 comments
Indeed a prophet has no honour in his land. Well done Econet for the sterling work and pride you have done and brought us. I often hear people say “If only MTN was in Zimbabwe” and I would argue that “What will they do?”.
Some have labelled me as having a bias towards Econet and they don’t want to listen to the innovation.
Llodza.
MTN would give Econet more serious competition, lowering data charges and forcing them to offer better services, improve customer care etc.
What was in you mind, Llodza? Do you think people want Rands from MTN?
Yes Econet has created jobs locally but its not an excuse for offering bullsh*t!!