PARIS, France, May 22, 2012/ — Armed with the success of the previous
edition in 2011, today Orange (http://www.orange.com) is launching the
second edition of its Orange African Social Venture Prize. The goal is
to promote social innovation that supports development through
Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Logo Orange: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/orange-logo.jpg
With this prize, Orange will provide a financial endowment as well as
expert support to the young companies that put forward innovative
projects with a significant social impact.
 Winners of the first edition
Last year, more than 600 candidates responded to the call for
projects, reflecting the strong entrepreneurial spirit and the high
potential of telecommunications services in Africa.
The three prize-winners of the first edition, announced at the
AfricaCom Awards in Cape Town in November 2011, proposed the following
projects:
– Horticultural Tele-Irrigation: a Nigerien project that puts
mobile technology in the hands of horticulturalists;
– Agasha Business Network: a Ugandan community-based
e-commerce platform that promotes small African businesses to the
global market;
– Kachile: an Ivory Coast e-commerce start-up for African
craft products.
 Encouraging the use of ICT to aid development
The Orange African Social Venture Prize will be awarded once again
this year to three entrepreneurs or start-ups offering solutions that
use ICT in innovative ways to meet the needs of populations on the
African continent. Projects proposed during the first edition covered
a variety of fields, such as healthcare, agriculture, banking services
and education.
 Supporting social entrepreneurs
Orange is committed to financially supporting and offering its
expertise to the management of the growing small and midsize companies
who are awarded this prize. In addition to receiving an endowment of
10,000 to 25,000 euros, the three prize-winners will receive six
months of support from entrepreneurial and ICT experts. In addition, a
“favourite project”, selected by visitors of the Group’s web portal
www.starafrica.com, will be highlighted before the jury responsible
for selecting the winning projects.
 Who can enter?
Any entrepreneur or legal entity that has been in existence for fewer
than three years at the time of the competition may participate at no
cost and with no restriction on nationality. Submitted projects must
be designed to be deployed in at least one of the African countries in
which Orange operates and must use information and communication
technology in an innovative way to help improve the living conditions
of the populations in these countries.
Applications are accepted from May 22 to September 21, 2012 on
Orange’s pan-African web portal, http://www.starafrica.com.
Orange operates in 18 African countries and has a total of 70 million
customers. To contribute to the social and economic development of
these countries, the Group has put together the “Orange for
Development” programme, which is based on three central themes:
– the development of its networks to maximize the number of
people who are able to benefit from digital services;
– innovation to meet the needs of populations through
value-added services in essential fields such as healthcare,
education, agriculture and banking services; and
– contributing to the local development of ICT markets and
innovation ecosystems.
It is to meet this last goal, which is aligned with both its
innovation strategy as well as its Corporate Social Responsibility
policy, that the Group decided to launch the Orange African Social
Venture Prize.
See the presentation of the competition by the jury on
http://www.starafrica.com.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Orange.
About StarAfrica.com
StarAfrica.com is Orange’s entertainment web portal in Africa.
StarAfrica aggregates content from all Sub-Saharan countries on 6
channels: news, football, more sports, music, education and jobs,
whose common thread is to highlight young talent. StarAfrica is also
an online shop that provides Africans living abroad with access to
innovative communications services.
About Orange
France Telecom-Orange (http://www.orange.com) is one of the world’s
leading telecommunications operators with 171,000 employees worldwide,
including 105,000 employees in France, and sales of 10.9 billion euros
in the first three months of 2012. Present in 33 countries, the Group
had a customer base of 225 million customers at 31 March 2012,
including 181 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group’s
single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the
majority of countries where the company operates. At 31 March 2012,
the Group had 166 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband
internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main
European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and,
under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders
in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.
With its industrial project, “conquests 2015”, Orange is
simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders,
as well as the society in which the company operates, through a
concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through
a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment
of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future
growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer
experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and
through the acceleration of international development.
France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A)
and on the New York Stock Exchange.
For more information (on the internet and on your mobile):
www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or
to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this
material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange
France or France Telecom.
Press contacts: +33 1 44 44 93 93
Tom Wright, tom.wright@orange.com
Mylène Blin, mylene.blin@orange.com
SOURCE
France Telecom-Orange