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22.05.2012 Africa

Orange launches second edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize

By France Telecom-Orange
Orange launches second edition of the Orange African Social Venture PrizeOrange launches second edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize
22.05.2012 LISTEN

PARIS, France, May 22, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Armed with the success of the previous edition in 2011, today Orange (http://www.orange.com) is launching the second edition of its Orange African Social Venture Prize. The goal is to promote social innovation that supports development through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Logo Orange: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/orange-logo.jpg

With this prize, Orange will provide a financial endowment as well as expert support to the young companies that put forward innovative projects with a significant social impact.

 Winners of the first edition

Last year, more than 600 candidates responded to the call for projects, reflecting the strong entrepreneurial spirit and the high potential of telecommunications services in Africa.

The three prize-winners of the first edition, announced at the AfricaCom Awards in Cape Town in November 2011, proposed the following projects:

- Horticultural Tele-Irrigation: a Nigerien project that puts mobile technology in the hands of horticulturalists;

- Agasha Business Network: a Ugandan community-based e-commerce platform that promotes small African businesses to the global market;

- Kachile: an Ivory Coast e-commerce start-up for African craft products.

 Encouraging the use of ICT to aid development

The Orange African Social Venture Prize will be awarded once again this year to three entrepreneurs or start-ups offering solutions that use ICT in innovative ways to meet the needs of populations on the African continent. Projects proposed during the first edition covered a variety of fields, such as healthcare, agriculture, banking services and education.

 Supporting social entrepreneurs

Orange is committed to financially supporting and offering its expertise to the management of the growing small and midsize companies who are awarded this prize. In addition to receiving an endowment of 10,000 to 25,000 euros, the three prize-winners will receive six months of support from entrepreneurial and ICT experts. In addition, a "favourite project", selected by visitors of the Group's web portal www.starafrica.com, will be highlighted before the jury responsible for selecting the winning projects.

 Who can enter?

Any entrepreneur or legal entity that has been in existence for fewer than three years at the time of the competition may participate at no cost and with no restriction on nationality. Submitted projects must be designed to be deployed in at least one of the African countries in which Orange operates and must use information and communication technology in an innovative way to help improve the living conditions of the populations in these countries.

Applications are accepted from May 22 to September 21, 2012 on Orange's pan-African web portal, http://www.starafrica.com.

Orange operates in 18 African countries and has a total of 70 million customers. To contribute to the social and economic development of these countries, the Group has put together the "Orange for Development" programme, which is based on three central themes:

- the development of its networks to maximize the number of people who are able to benefit from digital services;

- innovation to meet the needs of populations through value-added services in essential fields such as healthcare, education, agriculture and banking services; and

- contributing to the local development of ICT markets and innovation ecosystems.

It is to meet this last goal, which is aligned with both its innovation strategy as well as its Corporate Social Responsibility policy, that the Group decided to launch the Orange African Social Venture Prize.

See the presentation of the competition by the jury on http://www.starafrica.com.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Orange.

About StarAfrica.com

StarAfrica.com is Orange's entertainment web portal in Africa. StarAfrica aggregates content from all Sub-Saharan countries on 6 channels: news, football, more sports, music, education and jobs, whose common thread is to highlight young talent. StarAfrica is also an online shop that provides Africans living abroad with access to innovative communications services.

About Orange

France Telecom-Orange (http://www.orange.com) is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with 171,000 employees worldwide, including 105,000 employees in France, and sales of 10.9 billion euros in the first three months of 2012. Present in 33 countries, the Group had a customer base of 225 million customers at 31 March 2012, including 181 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group's single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. At 31 March 2012, the Group had 166 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

Press contacts: +33 1 44 44 93 93

Tom Wright, [email protected]

Mylène Blin, [email protected]

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