Final Sessions at the Africa Web Festival

Beforehand, two days were set aside for perfecting the project presentations. The participants, who come from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Senegal and DR Congo, were assisted by Philippe Couve and Julien Gueit to overcome the difficulties inherent to public speaking and master the project presentation codes on screen. In addition, the participants were required to present themselves in one sentence in front of the cameras at the Africa web festival, and to adapt their speeches for not only a young audience but also for an audience made up of specialists in the entrepreneurial and digital economy sectors at Orange Fab d'Abidjan.

Networking and presentations given to a panel of investors

The key moment of the week was when the participants were given the opportunity to present their projects to corporate investment and advertising professionals during a special session organised as part of the festival. After much deliberation, the panel awarded first prize to the Agribusiness TV project – a web-based TV station that aims to make careers in the agricultural sector more appealing to young Africans. A special mention was given to the legal advice and information website project La Voix du Juriste for its usefulness to citizens and its development potential.

During the festival, all of the participants had the chance to meet major names in the world of web innovation and build up contacts.

The eight projects:

Agribusiness TV is the very first African web-based TV station that is devoted to young people making a success of the innovations in agriculture.

La Voix du juriste is a Burkinan webzine specialising in legal issues, which offers the keys needed to make sense of information and understand the requirements of the Rule of Law.

Afroinnitiativ.com is a digital media channel devoted to promoting entrepreneurship and new technologies amongst young Africans.

Beatzaddiction is a Beninese web platform whose sole mission is to uncover new African musical talents.

Koboo is a platform for training farmers by means of audio messages received on their mobile phones.

Kionesha is a project for selling pictures depicting modern-day Africa.

KomKonso is a project for a website that aims to provide information on products and the consumer sector in Senegal, whilst encouraging local consumption.

Niouz is a social media website for young Malagasy citizens.

The Innovate Africa – Entrepreneurs finalists have also entered their projects in Innovateafrica – the large-scale contest co-organised by CFI and Code for Africa that covers the whole of Africa.

The results are scheduled to be announced in mid-January 2017.

Beyond the competition, members of the #AfriqueInnovation projects
now form a close-knit team that brings together six countries
(Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, DR Congo, Senegal)