The nine winners of the MTN Innovation Awards 2017 have today (Thursday, 23rd November 2017) been given their cash prizes from MTN Uganda.

The nine winners picked their cash prizes totaling $27,000 (about Ugx 97.2 million) during a handover ceremony and interaction with the MTN Uganda Chief Marketing Officer, Olivier Prentout.

The nine came top at the recently concluded MTN Innovation Awards 2017 Gala Dinner. Each of the nine winners were handed $3000 (about Ugx 10.8 million).

“These innovations are the future of the Ugandan economy. The developers spend a lot of their time trying to find solutions that will leave the Ugandan education system, health sector, entertainment, financial services and e-commerce in a much better way than it is right now,” explained Prentout during the handover ceremony and interaction with the winners that took place MTN Towers, Kampala.

The MTN Innovation Awards 2017 call for entries that closed in early October 2017 attracted more than 200 entries, a record number since the awards started in 2015. Through an audit process, a shortlist of 45 nominees was made and they showcased their innovations to public. It is from the 45 nominees that the nine winners were picked.

“The heartbeat of Uganda’s economy in the future is the young population. This demographic is inclined to technology and always innovating. MTN wants to be part of supporting that ecosystem that will support innovations since its history is from a small company to a pan-African and global telecom company,” he adds.

The nine were selected by a panel of judges. The awards indicate MTN Uganda’s commitment to scale sectors critical to the improvement of lives and communities through digital innovations. The awards are in line with MTN Uganda’s mission to make the lives of Ugandans brighter.

The winners:

1. Innovator of the Year

David Gonahasa – Roundbob.com

The entrepreneur behind Roundbob which helps users access and afford travel both domestic and international. By providing a unique travel wallet, users are able to put aside funds for travel up to 12 months in advance. The platform uses proprietary technology to facilitate the booking process with multiple international contracts that allow for varied inventory. The Ugandan market and middle class, in particular, continue to grow, Travel continues to be one of the most desired products for business, health, religion, education and so much more. Travel, however, is very expensive. Roundbob is making travel a reality, providing the market the right information and helping them access travel.

2. Outstanding Woman in Innovation

Evelyn Namara

The brain behind the M – Voucher app which is championing last-mile digital payments in the agricultural sector by using a system that combines a couple of ICT tools to allow development agencies as well as NGOs to disburse subsidies to smallholder farmers to enable them to purchase improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. M-Voucher uses USSD to allow agro-dealers to use their mobile phones to redeem vouchers in a fast, efficient and transparent manner. It also has a mobile money integration that pays dealers immediately they redeem a voucher from a beneficiary.

3. Best SME Application

Qwicart

This app aggregates commodities from different supermarkets giving the user an option to select the preferred shopping location. They have a three-pronged system that ensures both the supermarket, in-store picker and Qwicart can operate seamlessly using different applications that are synchronized to operate as one. This ensures that when the user makes an order, it’s received by the picker in the store with oversight from the supermarket owners and managers.

4. Most Innovative Mobile App

Qwicart

5. Best Education Application

myChild

Addresses the issue of feedback to parents concerning their children’s education. This includes child performance and analysis, upcoming school events, child track record access, staff directory access to inform teachers in case a student doesn’t make it to school, easing fees payment using mobile money or Interswitch, and a chat platform so that parents can give feedback.

6. Best Financial Services Application

MamboPay

This app tackles payments using purpose-bound digital coupons as well as cards. The purpose-bound coupons eliminate misuse of funds in such a way that they can be redeemed only for the intended purpose and are not transferable to any other purpose. The cards serve mainly the financially excluded people such as students in secondary schools. With these cards, parents can easily send pocket money or pay school fees using mobile money. The app requires simple configurations on the system to have merchants on board or even to register cards. The fact that the app rides on MTN mobile money is an added advantage in that, they can serve any part of Uganda that has an MTN signal.

7. Best Health Application

Protecting Infants Remotely by SMS (PRISMS)

Protecting Infants Remotely by SMS (PRISMS) is an app that provides timely management plans (both treatment and investigations) to the healthcare provider by SMS so as to assess and treat an infant based on the symptoms they are currently exhibiting that can then be input into the app and a response from the server is received within 5 seconds. The suggested management plans returned from each SMS response are offered by expert pediatricians. This app is already saving lives of infants where it is used.

8. Best Agriculture Application

M-Voucher

This app is championing last-mile digital payments in the agricultural sector by using a system that combines a couple of ICT tools to allow development agencies as well as NGOs to disburse subsidies to smallholder farmers to enable them to purchase improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. M-Voucher uses USSD to allow agro-dealers to use their mobile phones to redeem vouchers in a fast, efficient and transparent manner. It also has a mobile money integration that pays dealers immediately they redeem a voucher from a beneficiary.

9. Best Media and Entertainment Application

appAbout

This is an app with a fully comprehensive and socialized events management system that caters to event creation, user engagement, social media promotion, ticket sales and door verification, event analysis and collections. It combines crowdfunding using a unique chat- based payment system