The Gala Awards evening was held in Nairobi on December 6th and the winners have been announced. The 2010 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship Grand Prize winner is Craft Silicon Limited. This remarkable company was awarded US $100,000 along with five other winners each receiving US $50,000.
Craft Silicon Limited has established itself as a leader in mobile software development, currently working on online mobile transactions applications and online mobile core banking access applications. They have built value added features such as bill payments, mobile top-up and salary payments. They facilitate everything from SMS banking up to applications specially developed for online transactions, which can interact with biometric devices needed to authenticate the transaction. Apart from the internet and mobile services, their premium application (BREFT) switches ATM and POS transactions, linking into multi-service providers like MPESA and various core banking solutions. Their next objective is to expand their e-commerce offerings and facilitate seamlessly interaction with visa. This is in their quest to become the leading platform for channel banking services and a critical partner for financial institutions. With a track record like this it’s anyone’s guess where they will focus their energies next:)
To win the prestigious Legatum award companies needed to demonstrate visionary leadership, innovation, strong growth and a company culture that builds on strong core values. At the same time each of the finalist were selected for their social impact, either by fostering job creation, improved community living standards or by expanding into overseas markets. Clearly this competition was a success and sets a clear milestone for the continent’s aspiring entrepreneurs and promising African ventures.
At VC4Africa we strongly support efforts like this, extend our congratulations to the winning team and sign ourselves up as fans!! And maybe next year (we will do our part at VC4A) we have some more woman applicants as rightly pointed out by Rachel. Read her post on the matter.