By Ndumbe Bell JG in Douala
The 15th edition of the Orange Social Venture Prize for Africa (POESAM) 2025 ended recently at the Elite Office premises in Akwa, Douala, with the organisers selecting four contenders at the national level who will be eligible for the international challenge in 17 other countries where the Orange group is operational.
The challenge is aimed at promoting entrepreneurial innovative projects from young businesses or start ups who have the creativity. The intention is to have them translate these into things that will impact positively and concretely in the African and Near Eastern countries where the Orange group is operational such as in Cameroun.
In the presence of a flurry of guests made up of government representatives, Orange Cameroon’s key acolytes, former laureates, experts of sundry domains and senior and junior colleagues, the jury etc, the GM of Orange Cameroun who was also the chairman of the jury, Patrick Benon, rejoiced that for 15 years today, Orange Cameroun and partners have put at the disposal of start ups their orange digital centre, finances, a test laboratory and experts to train, coach and guide the beneficiaries. The skills garnard from here have led to the successful perfection of their inventions some of which have now had the visibility and market opportunities for them at the national and international levels.
Patrick Benon said they support everything little to grow in the domains of education, health, agriculture, finance and culture where Orange Cameroun is facing competition but that as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned, Orange Cameroun is the leader in Cameroon, the GM boasted.
The Chair of the jury again rejoiced that they have made great strides at international competitions, recounting that three laureates from here have won first prizes within the last 5years. He pointed out that these winnings appear to testify that Cameroun is indeed Africa in miniature. The GM called out a Techno who won first prize in 2019 – Wicker, in 2021 and Adinkra in 2023. He mentioned a fourth, the Cameroonian jury who won a special prize recently. Some others have been coached by the Orange Digital Centre, a Clinic Home and Adinkra who have now been subscribed in the Orange superhighway, the MaxIt to enhance visibility and business opportunities.
congratulates winner No. One
Today, MaxIt that was recently created counts 5 million subscribers. Two other entities that qualified at Orange Digital Centre are in active business partnership with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d’Ivoire. Patrick Benon stated his resolve to continue work in the same trajectory.
It was stated that in this 15th edition, Cameroon’s entries for this challenge soared to 381, which speaks of the level of enthusiasm demonstrated by youth out of the 17 countries to take part at the international space.
Orange Cameroun showered praise on members of Orange for Change, a five-member team of young experts for retaining 10 candidates after scrutising and selecting 10 contenders who at this stage were winners. They were handed over certificates and will continue to work with the the digital centre for the upcoming season.
Some of them were Save Food Dryer led by Metsanoux, Agriguardian led Yebga Miyogo, Open Lab driven by Abbo, Osia to name a few.
The Chairman of the jury then acknowledged the tedious selection process that senior officials like the marketing and communications director, Yves Kom, Mr. Batonge, key partners and others did to select the four final beneficiaries.
Here are the four Orange Social Venture Prize at the national level (2025): Following the descending order of superiority, the 4th prize won by Sipol (project) headed by Darlanne J. Djonguoe attached with a cash prize of FCFA 2million, a special prize to encourage women entrepreneurs. The 3rd prize was won by the project Open Lab led by Abbo Ismaël for creating an interactive virtual laboratory with a cash prize of FCFA 2 million. The 2nd prize was taken by Diva Innovation, innovated by Didier Dinamou for the production and distribution of refrigerators at FCFA 2million. Then came the peak moment and after a pause, the first prize winner was reserved for the project called Osia headed by Adidja Nezang Sale and won the highest cash prize of FCFA 4 million for setting up a platform for the orientation of educational pursuits through artificial intelligence . All the winners will have six months of additional coaching at the Orange Digital Centre.
Other activities included the introduction of Orange Cameroun’s potential partners. One of them, a business mogul called Dashaco Holdings now in 22 countries, owner of Acmar, Dash TV, outcome Africa and Dash Energy Petroleum, assured the host for a futuristic relationship continuing that those who have not won this time will win next. Dashaco asked them to shun the spirit of disappointments.
Another key partner who happens to be the founder and CEO of the Balafon Media group, Cyrille Bojiko made one key statement saying ”Let the money work for you and not you work for the money”. This was after naming some virtues of success such as continuous reading, team work and keeping passions alive.