The winners of the 12th edition of the Orange Social Venture Prize have been announced. The winners for this year are Emmanuel Sackie of Ezee Market, who earned the first prize; Radious J. Tarbla of Ticketpekin, who won the second prize; and Agnes Togba of Jul-Konmlah, who took home the third-place award as well as the prize for the project which empowers women the most.
Held annually, the Orange Social Venture Prize honors innovative projects based on information and communication technologies (ICT) which improve the living condition of people in Africa and the Middle East in fields such as education, healthcare, farming, mobile payments or sustainable development.
The competition has both a national and international phase. A total of twenty-two applications were received for Liberia’s national phase. Nine of those applications made it to the final stage of the national competition and, therefore, had the opportunity to pitch their concepts to a panel of judges. This year’s judges were Yoquoi Lavala, Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank Liberia, who served as Jury President, while Jefyne Togba, Business Development Specialist & Founder of The Vantage Group, and Gwatoh R. Kroma, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Loops Academy, served as Jury Members, respectively.
The first prize winner, Ezee Market, was co-founded by Eric Hage, Christopher B. Jones, and Emmanuel K. Sackie. Ezee Market was established with the goal of helping business owners and entrepreneurs of Liberia/Africa scale-up their businesses and improve their revenues by utilizing the e-commerce landscape. The company helps Liberian businesses connect their products with thousands of online consumers while providing topnotch seller support and first-rate expertise on product delivery. Ezee Market received a cash award of $3,000, the second prize winner received $2,000 and the third prize winner $1,500, in addition to $400 for being the Women Empowerment prize winner.
Each of Liberia’s three winners are now automatically entered into the international phase of the competition, where they will compete against prize winners from sixteen other African countries. According to Orange, the international finalists will be evaluated by a grand jury of influential representatives from the African tech world, who will choose the three overall winners of the International Grand Prize. The first prize winner will receive €25,000, the second prize winner, €15,000, and the third prize winner, €10,000.
The ceremony was held at Orange Digital Center—a new state-of-the-art facility where Liberians entering the job market have the opportunity to learn various skills with a focus on technology for free as well as the support of start-ups. At the ceremony, Sara Elizabeth Buchanan, Executive Director of Orange Foundation and Orange Digital Center, referenced how candidates from Liberia had consistently won additional awards from the Orange Social Venture Prize international competition and looked forward to seeing that success again this year.
