04 Apr 2014 A little while ago, we told you that 20 semifinalists had been selected in the Africa Connected competition which seeks to see how people can use the web to promote business and humanitarian ventures. Well, now we have our winners as announced by Google at an event in Nairobi!
In no particular order, our winners are SitawaWafula from Kenya, who used Google Blogger to establish an award winning blog on mental health in East Africa. EseogheneOdiete from Nigeria learned how to create handbags using Google Search and YouTube and used Search to get over 100 blogs to feature her designs.
Christopher Panford from Ghana runs a transport company helping Ghanaian drivers access vehicle loans. He uses Google Maps to monitor the location of vehicles under bank loans.
Eric Obuh from Nigeria uses Google+ and YouTube to raise awareness about underprivileged youngsters in the slums of Lagos, helping to raise scholarship money, and encouraging kids to stay in school.
Eunice Namirembe from Uganda runs The Medical Concierge Group which helps Ugandan communities access quality healthcare and information. She has built a 24-hour ambulance call centre by using the Google Cloud console and Google Maps to record patient information and track patient locations.
The winners will bag $25,000 [ZAR 260,000] each, and will also have the opportunity to work with a Google sponsor over a six-month period to further their online success.
And in a pleasant twist, Google also surprised the remaining five success stories by awarding them $10,000 each to help grow their ventures and initiatives for greater social and economic impact. Recipients included; Tim McGuire from South Africa, NqobizithaMlilo from Zimbabwe, MayowaAdegbile from Nigeria, LamineMbengue from Senegal and Steve Kyenze from Kenya