Contenders battle for AfricaCom Awards

Some of the most prominent officials in the information and telecommunications industry in the continent are contesting the AfricaCom Industry Personality of the Year Award, which organisers of the continent's premier ICT conference will hand out this evening in Cape Town at an awards ceremony.

Karel Pienaar, MTN South Africa managing director; Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of Cell C and Cheikh Mbaye, Orange Group executive are reportedly favourites to land the award. Adiel Akplogan of AFRINIC; Andile Gcaba of Convergence Partners and Ben Sira of Sky Vision have also been nominated for the award.

The Industry Personality of the Year award is given to the individual who made the biggest impact in the industry in the past year.

Meanwhile, France-headquartered Orange, which has operations in a number of countries in the continent, is nominated in 10 of the 14 awards, including Mbaye's nomination.

Safaricom and Airtel are nominated for five and three awards respectively. MTN, Universal Group, Spice, Gateway and Comviva are some of the sponsors of the awards.

Julie Rey, research director at Informa Telecoms and Media, organisers of AfricaCom praised the nominees ahead of the event.

"AfricaCom Awards will celebrate the best achievements in Africa's digital market. The number and quality of entrants has been exceptional," she said.

View the shortlist.