Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane must have thought he was witnessing a rare South African hat-trick after he had given the official welcome at last night’s AfricaCom Awards ceremony in Cape Town. MTN took three of the ten awards, with two going to MTN South Africa and one to the MTN Foundation. Gateway Communications, Orange Tunisie and Sibesonke were among the other winners.
Africa’s leading service providers and vendors convened at the 3rd annual AfricaCom Awards held in the Grand Ballroom at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, venue of the AfricaCom conference and exhibition. The night started with an official welcome from UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador Pitso Mosimane, Coach of the Bafana Bafana, South Africa’s national football team.
The most innovative of the continent’s companies were shortlisted for the 10 categories, and global leaders rubbed shoulders with home-grown African talent in the list of winners.
The winning entries covered a broad spectrum of networks, services and solutions, offering a cross-section of the African telecommunications industry. The independent panel of Judges, who had an even harder time deciding the winners than last year, raised the winning entries as the most inspiring examples of telecoms innovation and progress on the continent this year:
· New Entrant of the Year: Orange Tunisie
· Best Network Improvement: MTN South Africa for Optimal Network Coverage
· Best New Services: Comviva with Mobile Data Platform
· Best Cost Efficiency Solution for Africa: Dark Fibre and The Fibre to the Tower
· Green Telecoms Award: Flexenclosure and E-site
· Best Solution for Rural Services: Orange France Telecom with Village Phone
· Best Marketing Campaign: MTN South Africa and the AYOBA Campaign
· Telecoms Innovation of the Year: Sibesonke and User Generated Content
· Best Pan African Initiative: Gateway Communications with High Quality Connections
· Changing Lives Award: MTN Foundation for Rural Telephone Project 3000
The AfricaCom Awards, Africa’s only dedicated awards for the telecoms industry, has now been celebrating African achievement for 3 years, since the inaugural ceremony in 2008.
For information on the awards visit the website http://www.africacomawards.com