Two
Nigerian youths, Messrs Anthony Oniwon and Abdulganiyu Onabanjo were the
cynosure of all eyes, Wednesday week, Night in Cape Town as they carted away a
whopping $35, 000, approximately, N6 million, as winners of Etisalat
Pan-African Prize for Innovation 2014.
Etisalat
used the opportunity of the AfricaCom Awards Gala Dinner which rounded off this
year’s AfricaCom Conference, at the Cape Town International Conference Centre
Nov 11-13 to present the prizes.
Oniwon
created and developed Exam mate solution, an Exam preparatory programme for
JAMB candidates, designed to reduce the failure rate in JAMB examinations. The
application, according to Etisalat, rated highest among others considered in
the Most Innovative Product or Service category of the award and therefore
merited the coveted Prize of $25,000- over N4million, while Onabanjo’s
Interactive Media Interface Design (IMID), a remote communication interface for
GPRS-enabled pre-paid meters, ranked top in the Most Innovative Idea category
and also deserved the top prize of N$10,000 – approximately N1.7 million.
Presenting the Awards, Etisalat Nigeria’s Director, Consumer Segment, Oluwole
Rawa and his colleague Adia Sowho, Head Digital Media, described the award initiative
as Etisalat’s way of encouraging and celebrating valuable innovation in the
African market. The Award is in its third edition.
Rawa
expressed pleasure that the competition was beginning to inspire local software
developers and ingenious people to create innovative and relevant mobile
broadband products and services that can make a positive impact on the
aggregate African economy. “At Etisalat, we see ourselves as a young and
innovative company, setting the pace for others in the telecommu-nications industry.
Therefore, we are glad to see that the Etisalat Pan-African Prize for
Innovation is spurring young people across Africa to be creative” he said.
Beneficiaries of the Prize, Anthony Oniwon and Abdulganiyu Onabanjo both
commended Etisalat for introducing the award.
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