Etisalat Prize for Innovation Winners Receive Prizes

Etisalat, Nigeria’s most innovative and fastest growing telecommunications services provider, has formally unveiled winners of this year’s edition of the Etisalat Prize for Innovation to the media. The official unveiling took place recently in Lagos.

The winners Adebayo Adegbembo of Genii Games and Uche Solomon Okocha of Efiwe Mobile Application, smiled home with their prize money of $25,000 for the Most Innovative Service and $10,000 for the Most Innovative Idea respectively, and pledged to support the desire of Etisalat Nigeria to deepen telecommunications beyond voice, one of the main reasons why the company endowed the prize.

Speaking at the event, Matthew Willsher, acting chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria explained that the prize was instituted as part of efforts by the company to “support the drive to engender and promote mobile broadband penetration in Africa.” The prize, according to him, “is unique because it helps us meet the desires of our customers beyond the business of telephony.”

Willsher pointed out that supporting innovation comes naturally to Etisalat. “Our business strategy is based on four basic elements, part of which is innovation. Innovation has been the bedrock of every product we launched in the last five years of our operation in Nigeria,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the winners, Adegbembo commended Etisalat for supporting young and upcoming developers. “This kind of intervention will spur more creative minds to develop applications and other solutions that can impact on the economy. With the support of this prize money, we will definitely improve on what we have developed to the benefit of all,” he said.

The Etisalat Prize for Innovation, awarded in two categories, was designed to reward individuals developing advanced mobile broadband solutions and platforms which would boost the growth of mobile broadband in Africa.