Cape Town, South Africa was the host venue for the announcement of the much anticipated AppsAfrica.com Innovation Awards 2015 on 16 November, supported by Uber, Mobile Monday South Africa, Appsworld and Picup. The awards are a celebration of African mobile and tech ecosystem innovation, and the winner of this year’s prestigious Women in Tech Award was Emefa Kpegba, founder of OMobileFunding in Togo.
OMobile Funding is an African mobile crowdfunding, microfinance and online platform, and was also a previous winner of the 100 Innovations for Sustainable Development in Africa Forum Award in 2013.
Entries for this year’s AppsAfrica.com Innovation Awards were received from very diverse sectors such as entertainment, agriculture, transport and market research. Health, education and fintech were very popular categories also, all illustrating the explosive growth of Africa’s mobile first markets and tech ecosystem.
"The contribution women are making in technology in Africa is also very evident and important in empowering the next generation."
- Andrew Fassnidge, AppsAfrica.com
The 2015 entries came from over 21 countries and the winners on the night came from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Tanzania and Togo.
Appsafrica.com Innovation Awards Winners 2015:
- Disruptive Innovation - Opera’s Sponsored Web Pass (Nigeria)
- Mobile Innovation – Bookly (South Africa)
- Non Data Mobile Innovation – GeoPoll (Kenya/USA)
- African App - Tuluntulu (South Africa)
- Fintech - VCpay (South Africa)
- Health – GiftedMom (Cameroon)
- Educational - mPaper (Tanzania)
- Social Impact Award - codeX (South Africa)
- Entertainment - Gamsole (Nigeria)
- Women In Tech - Emefa Kpegba - OMobileFunding (Togo)
Andrew Fassnidge Director at Appsafrica.com said: “Our mission is always to promote and honour the fantastic innovation across the mobile and tech ecosystem in Africa. We had diverse entries from 21 countries and both the finalists and winners are a testament to how technology is being used to disrupt business models, empower people and drive positive social impact across the continent. The contribution women are making in technology in Africa is also very evident and important in empowering the next generation. Congratulations to all of the 2015 winners and thank you to all of the judges, sponsors, media partners and supporting innovation hubs across Africa.”
The awards party in Cape Town was a great evening of celebration and networking bringing together the mobile and tech community, enterprise, media, investors and innovators from across Africa.
About Emefa Kpegba & OMobile Funding
Emefa Kpegba is the founder and CEO of e-Technopole. She is a Social Entrepreneur and multi-award winning woman in tech from Togo. She is a previous winner of the "100 innovations for sustainable development in Africa Forum 2013" with the O MobileFunding platform and Author of the book "Le monde professionnel : un champ de bataille". Her main dream is to change Togo and impact the whole Africa through technology. She also aims to motivate African women to leverage Tech to become innovate social entrepreneurs. Her focus is on innovation, social and web entrepreneurship to achieve her vision, which is to use tech for positive change in Togo, Africa and around the world.
E-Technopole launched in 2013 in Togo developed the platform called OMobileFunding to offer crowdfunding and microfinance to local technology innovators. It was the first platform of its kind to be launched in the region. Visit their website omobile.o-mobilefunding.com/fr/
“Most of the time it is not easy for Africans living in Africa to have their projects funded on [other] crowdfunding platforms even if their projects are good, reasonable and innovative, .... [African] people have needs and ideas but unfortunately usually there is lack of support, training, coaching, mentorship, infrastructures and investments.”
- Emefa Kpegba, founder of OMobile Funding
About Appsafrica.com
Appsafrica.com is a leading pan-African technology site, dedicated to delivering the latest news on mobile, tech, innovations and start-ups. Its team of writers across Africa review the latest innovations, events, companies and people behind them, giving their readers the complete view of what's happening on the rapidly expanding African tech scene. The Appsafrica.com Innovation Awards 2015, celebrate the best mobile and tech innovations in Africa.
For more information on the appsafrica.com Innovation Awards, contact Andrew Fassnidge
Appsafrica.com Tel: SA +27 (0) 63 525 7651 / UK+44 (0)785 269 3897 /
Email: andrew@appsafrica.com Website www.appsafrica.com