In Orange Group “Star Africa Award” Contest

In Orange Group  "Star Africa Award" Contest

Two Egyptian Teams Win Prizes Among the Top 10 Technology Projects Serving  Society in Africa

Almasalla, ATP News- In a special ceremony held on January 26th 2015, Mobinil honoured the 2 Egyptian teams selected among the top 10 Technology Projects Serving Society in Africa at the StarAfrica contest organized by Orange Group in 2014. The contest was organized by Orange group covering all of its subsidaries in  Africa with an aim of  improving  lives of people through development of telecommunicaion and information tehcnologies.

StarAfrica Award, the  annual contest organized by Orange Group enables applicants from African countries; indivduals and small businesses to participate via the award‘s website www.starafrica.com the best  technological projects that serve society are then selected by a panel of judges. The contest is promoted via social media pages & at the shops of companies affiliated to the group.

 
Over 450 projects from 18 countries in the African continent have competed in the contest. A jury from Orange top officials selected the top 10 projects projects  and two of the projects submitted by Egyptian teams were selected among Orange Africa Social Venture Prize.
 

The Egyptian project “Agzakhana” by Ahmed Shabana was one of the selections. The project is an online pharmacuetical application that offers a wide selection of products typically found in high-end drug stores but promises to make the experience much more convenient. The other project, “Twinkle Box” was developed by a team of  3 innovators who are  Ibraam Sami, Jack Tadros and Samer Wagdy. Twinkle Box combines mobile and solar power technologies providing the needed energy for lightning and charging mobile phones through a simple payment method via mobile operators.
 

Yves Gauthier, Mobinil’s CEO and representative of the Orange Group in Egypt granted certificates of appreciation to the Egyptian winners on behalf of the Orange Group in the presence of media representatives and Mobinil officials. Meanwhile, Eng. Ashraf Halim Chief Commercial Offcier and Ms. Rana Abbadi Chief Regulatory and Wholesale Officer granted the winners valuable gifts.

Mr. Ibraam Sami, one of the 3 team members  of Twinkle Box winning project stated, “We can’t describe how happy we are to represent Egypt in this competiton. Our country has the brightest minds to solve the most severe problems all over the globe. We believe that the power of the new advanced engineering and the creativity of the hybrid systems technology are the best tools to solve our world’s toughest problems. That is exactly we are trying to do through Twinklebox“. Sami added “ Thanks to Orange for organizing such competitions which gave the entrepreneurs the chance to achieve their innovative ideas and to achieve social impact and meet the needs of Africans in fields such as health, agriculture, education, energy“.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmed Shabna of Agzakhana  project commented on the award stating"It has been a great honor to be recognized by the Orange group as one of the Egyptian companies  in Africa to make it to the top 10. I hope the day will come very soon when Agzakhana can reach every door in rural Africa saving one life at a time. That is the high impact entrepreneurship Africa needs and that is the healthcare disruption Orange partners can help deliver ".
 

On this occasion Yves Gauthier, CEO Mobinil, commented: “Choosing 2 Egyptian teams among the best 10 projects serving Society in StarAfrica Award encourage  us to continue our efforts in supporting talented Egyptian youth who deploy mobile services and technology to support society as this aligns with the company’s strategy to achieve a successfull CSR  program in Egypt“.

It is worth noting that Mobinil has also supported the StarAfrica contest in Egypt by creating awareness to it via posters at its shops and awareness messages  on its social media pages and  public relations efforts.