All the 2014 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship winners

African Leadership Network (ALN) announced the winners for the 2014 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE) on Friday, 7 November 2014. In its eighth year since its establishment by the Legatum Group, AAE is now the most distinguished Africa-focused awards program.

Each year, it awards over $200,000 to outstanding African entrepreneurs who demonstrate business excellence and social impact. The winners represent several African countries from across the continent and many different industries. In addition to Legatum, the Awards are presented by core sponsors Omidyar Network, ELMA Growth Foundation, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Winners

By category, the winners for 2014 are as follows:

Transformational Business Award: Choppies (Botswana), a grocery and general merchandise retailer and the largest retailer in Botswana. It has over 100 stores in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. - www.choppies.co.bw
Outstanding Mature Business Award: OSTEC (Ghana), a leading IT infrastructure services provider with a presence in several West African countries. - www.ostecit.com
Outstanding Small and Growing Business Award: Trust Industries (Rwanda), a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of paper products, detergents, and cosmetics. - www.trustindustriesglobal.com
Outstanding Social Entrepreneur Award: BanaPads (Uganda), which manufactures affordable, eco-friendly sanitary pads by converting banana stems, an abundant and free organic waste, into highly absorbent paper. - www.banapads.org

The Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Gervais Djondo of Togo, Founder of Ecobank and Asky Airlines. Djondo has dedicated his career to building pan-African businesses.

The People's Choice Award winners are Choppies of Botswana (Transformational), Mxit of South Africa (Mature), Khaas Logistics of South Africa (Growing), and Shining Hope for Communities of Kenya (Social Entrepreneur).

The winner of the Outstanding Rwandan Entrepreneur Award, given by Inkomoko Business Development and the African Entrepreneur Collective, is Clement Uwajeneza of AXiS, a company that develops and implements web and mobile applications and solutions in Rwanda.

The red carpet event featured world-class entertainment from award-winning Don Jazzy and the Maven Records Crew. Guests included dignitaries from across Africa, ALN members and sponsors, and Rwandan government partners. It was a night of bliss, glamour, and celebration of African entrepreneurs who are building prosperity and jobs for the continent.