Ghana’s Hubtel and its CEO, Alex Bram won laurels at the maiden Africa Technovate Awards, making the company the only one to have received two awards on the night.
Hubtel emerged as the Fintech Company of the Year, while its CEO was adjudged the Most Outstanding Tech Entrepreneur of the Decade.
The awards event was organised by Africa Integrated Development Communications (AIDEC) Consultancies, under the theme “Information Technology and the Way Forward for Africa Under the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
A total of 17 awards were given, out of 154 entries vetted by a high-powered panel of judges, and finally audited by Deloitte and Touch.
The Fintech Company of the Year award was in recognition of Hubtel’s consistent deployment of new technologies that make financial services and retail delivery more efficient, convenient, safe and accessible to its customers and the public.
Hubtel has enhanced its customer user interfaces and experience by building an intuitive digital infrastructure that is robust enough to minimise service disruptions and maximise merchant returns.
The company competed against Kippa and M-KOPA in the Fintech of the Year category.
Alex Bram’s award for the night – Most Outstanding Tech Entrepreneur of the Decade was in recognition of his work at building one the biggest technology companies in Ghana, his contributions at creating new ventures using existing digital technology and his pioneering work at developing new digital services for users across Africa over the past 16 years.
Alex Bram co-founded Hubtel in 2005 and oversaw its growth with zero external financing to annual revenue of more than US$10 million by 2014, and a current transacting user base of over 11 million.
In 2021, the company processed more than 8.3% of all successful mobile money transactions in Ghana – effectively making the company the 2nd biggest payment platform after MTN Mobile Money.
The KNUST Chemistry and Standford Graduate School of Business alumnus made it into the Forbes List for the first time when his company was barely seven years old. Alex has a reputation for being a deliberate, methodical, action-oriented leader with a fierce resolve to succeed.
He competed against Herman Chinery-Hesse of theSOFTtribe and Jesse Moore of M-KOPA.
Other Awards
Within the past six months, the company and its CEO, have won several awards, including Digital Company of the Year, eCommerce Personality of the Year at the maiden Foreign Investors Network (FIN) Cashless Awards in Ghana last December.
Again, at the Ghanaweb Excellence Awards in December 2021, Alex Bram emerged the Tech and Innovation Personality of the Year.
Hubtel was the first fintech company to establish a private platform for the deployment of Ghana’s GHQR. The platform is called myghqr.com and it allows users to create their own GHQR codes to accept payments into their bank accounts and digital wallet, including mobile money wallet.
The company is known for its many years of leading the bulk SMS aggregation space, but it has recently upgraded that service with digital financial service features and renamed it SMS&Money. The service now allows users to collect payments and send money to many contacts at the same time via SMS.
It also runs a quick commerce platform where users can make purchases of any items and pay via various channels – bank card, myghqr and digital wallets for delivery within minutes.
Hubtel is also one of three Ghanaian Fintechs that built and currently operates Ghana.GOV, which is a government platform for all residents of Ghana to access and pay for government services such as passport, birth certificates, and many more.
Hubtel currently operates in Accra, Tema, Takoradi, Kumasi and recently Cape Coast.
Find the full list of Award winners below
- Digital Agribusiness of the Year – Esoko
2. Tech Insurance Company of the Year – BIMA
3. Fintech Company of the Year – HUBTEL
4. EHealth Company of the Year – Africa ICT Right
5. Outstanding EduTech Institution of the Year – Academic City University College
6. Digital Innovation and Creativity of the Year – Chatbot Africa
7. Digital Business Transformation of the Year – Enterprise Computing
8. Tech Startup of the Year – MSoft
9. Young Tech Startup of the Year – Gambia Tech Project (The Gambia)
10. Blossoming Tech Company of the Year – Soko Aerial
11. Mature Tech Company of the Year – Isolutions Associates (Kenya)
12. Ambitious Tech of the Year – DreamOval
Africa
13. Long Standing Service Engagement – Delbondtek
14. Quality Standards – Research ICT Africa
15. Digital Excellence – Hanergy Global
16. Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Decade – Alex Bram
17. Lifetime Achiever of the Year – Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor
