June 19th, 2018

Safricom wins two Commonwealth ICT awards

Other awards go to the Ministry of Public Administration & Communications Trinidad & Tobago, Liquid Telecom and India’s BharatNet 

LONDON June 19, 2017 – LONDON. The second biennial Commonwealth ICT Awards 2018 took place in the evening of 18 June 2018, at the prestigious Lancaster House London, graciously hosted by the Commonwealth Foreign Office. The Commonwealth ICT Awards are intended to recognise major achievements in ICT’s by member countries and organisations and to share knowledge amongst stakeholders in key areas.

Secretary-General, The Honourable Patricia Scotland QC of the Commonwealth Secretariat  giving a welcome address at the Commonwealth ICT Awards 2018 

Safaricom won award for best wireless broadband initiative for Rural Star, where Safricom partnered with Huawei to reduce the total cost of building and running a mobile network site by up to 70 per cent. Through this solution, operators will for the first time, get the opportunity to construct low cost sites and in so doing, provide connectivity and digital services to more people living in rural and remote areas.

Safricom’s second award was given for best cybersecurity initiative for Hakikisha service. Hakikisha, which means “to confirm or verify” in Swahili, has been introduced to ensure customers no longer lose money as a result of erroneously entering the wrong numbers when transferring funds. This service enables subscribers to confirm a recipient’s name before completing a transaction to avoid errors and mishandling of online money transfers.

David Eurin from Liquid Telecom receiving the award for best fixed broadband initiative

The awards night also recognized three other awards. The awards went to the Ministry of Public Administration & Communications of Trinidad & Tobago for best application e-learning for their e-Based Competency Development Programme and the award for best fixed boadband initiative was awarded to Liquid Telecom. The final award was given to BharatNet India for best universal access initiative.

For more information please contact the Communications Team, communications@cto.int or +44 20 8600 3820.

About the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is the oldest and largest Commonwealth intergovernmental organisation in the field of information and communication technologies. With a diverse membership spanning developed and least developed countries, small island developing states, and more recently also the private sector and civil society, the CTO aims to become a trusted partner for sustainable development for all through ICTs. More information about us here.