As part of the competition Digicel entrepreneur of the year award held under the theme : A voice for entrepreneurs, in the presence of 700 guests from government, NGOs and the private sector, the Digicel awards were awarded in five categories: Entrepreneur of the Year, Agriculture & Environment, emerging entrepreneurs, industry and services category. 85 regional finalists took part in the first stage of the competition and 25 participated in the final.

For the first time in 5 years, a woman, Uzale Remay won the Digicel award, Entrepreneur of the Year. A woman who had the necessary imagination to transform the fruit and vegetable waste into a profitable entrepreneurial activity. Uzale Remay, founder in 1990 of the Pilot Agro Artisan workshops of Meyer (APLADEM) a food production cooperative has helped over 1,500 women to leave their families out of poverty over the past 25 years. Besides the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Uzale Remay also won the award for Agriculture & Environment section.

Denis O'Brien, President of the Committee of the competition, also President of Digicel Group, described Mrs. Remay as "not only an entrepreneur, but a true leader, a woman with a vision for her community [...] There are entrepreneurs who have a vision for their own business or for their own sector or for their own industry, but what is really rare is someone who looks a business and sees the potential it has to change an entire community."

The idea came to Mrs. Remay when she realized the amount of fruit and vegetables wasted every year just in the area of her hometown of Meyer (Jacmel) "We could see what was going on, we knew that there probably was a better way to use the waste and we sat together for finding it," evoked the big winner of this contest. Herorganization has grown and it employed a growing number of women in production networks including jelly, peanut butter, coffee and cocoa...

Maarten Boute, the President of Digicel Haiti, declared that Mrs Remay had proven once more that innovative thinking could effectively apply from smaller projects to larger industries "What we have seen here is a woman who did not just see food waste like how things are, but who decided that it was time for change and began to find the support and tools to generate this change, refusing to give up until she was successful."

In the category of emerging entrepreneurs the Award was won by Jacques Richet Junior of Gonaïves, founder of "Le Transporteur", whose modern and reliable bus service, has revolutionized the rural transport.

The Award in the industry sector was awarded to Jonas Guillaume, founder and manufacturer of detergents "Digo Industries SA".

In services the Award was awarded to Jean-Vincent Rony, a information services and technology company, "BITS SA", and in education the Adwrd was given to Jean Felix Rico, of "Wonderful Institute".

A special Social Entrepreneurship Award was presented this year to Remise Bélizaire, founder of "LOCAL", an organization that promotes self-help networks and entrepreneurship in marginalized rural communities; working mainly with women and acting both as social support and a business incubator.

HL/ HaitiLibre