Tuesday 18 August 2026, Sonatel headquarters in Dakar. Three cheques on a conference table, three teams, a press room. At the close of the 16th Orange Social Entrepreneur Prize for Africa and the Middle East — POESAM — WURUS takes third place on the Senegalese podium.
This blog usually talks about stock, cash and invoices. This post is about us — but mostly about what the award changes, concretely, for the shops and small businesses that open WURUS every morning.
POESAM, briefly
For sixteen years, the Orange Social Entrepreneur Prize for Africa and the Middle East has rewarded projects that put digital technology to work on a concrete social, economic or environmental problem. It runs in two stages: a national competition in each country, then an international round bringing together the winners from across the region.
In Senegal the national edition is run by Sonatel, through its Factory and the Orange Digital Center. The 2026 jury delivered its verdict on 18 August, at a press briefing held at the operator's headquarters.
262 entries, and a way of reading them
Mossamba Mbaye, head of the Sonatel Factory, opened the session with the number that defined this edition.
This year we received 262 projects.
The previous edition had recorded 145. The jury paid particular attention to artificial intelligence, big data and cybersecurity, with social, environmental and economic impact at the heart of the assessment.
The 2026 Senegalese podium
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1st prize Mbay Mi Conect — 2,000,000 FCFA Founded by Daouda Faye, an agricultural economics engineer. The project opens up access to farm credit by cross-referencing data on holdings and cooperatives, reducing the information gap between smallholders, banks and investors.
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2nd prize Tamusana — 1,500,000 FCFA Founded by Dr Seydina Issa Diop, a genomics and bioinformatics specialist. The project works to preserve seeds and agricultural genetic resources, aiming at a major seed and data bank for West Africa.
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3rd prize WURUS — 1,000,000 FCFA Founded by Mohamed Gueye. The management platform for shops and small businesses here: sales, stock, invoicing, cash and a customer portal, switched on one module at a time.
Two agricultural projects and a management platform: the shape of the field says a good deal about what the jury was looking for. Warm congratulations to Daouda Faye and Dr Seydina Issa Diop — placing behind those two is no consolation prize.
What we told the jury
Four minutes. That was the time we had. We did not start with the product — we started with three people.
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Madame Sylla, who runs a childrenswear shop in Dakar. She has Odoo and Excel. The licence is choking her, support is 8,000 km away, and none of it was designed for her.
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Abdou Thiam, a jeweller in Kaolack. He has no idea what sells best, and he is afraid of interfaces: he did not go through school, he went through Qur'anic school.
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Khadim Niang, who is trying to get his shop financed. Like many African small businesses, he is refused credit: he has no financial statement to show.
Three trades, three towns, the same dead end. And the same observation, which is what we put to the jury.
They all have gold in their hands. Just not the right tool to manage it. That gold is what gave our solution its name: WURUS, “gold” in Wolof.
The rest fits in one sentence: a set of modules you switch on as you need them, from sales to inventory, from inventory to the website, from the website to WhatsApp notifications and the customer portal. You only pay for what you use — the Starter plan is free, and Business starts at 650 francs a day.
Where WURUS stands today
The jury asked for evidence, not intentions. Here is what we put on the table.
None of this is a prototype. It is what runs today, in shops, warehouses and workshops.
Three pillars of impact
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Social — women entrepreneurs made bankable, tech jobs created in Dakar, and including those technology forgot: Abdou now runs his jewellery shop with clear icons, in his own language.
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Economic — formalising small businesses, and digital sovereignty. Our data stays in Africa, our code is written here.
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Environmental — doing away with paper ledgers and invoices, cutting waste through tight stock control, and hosting powered by 100% certified renewable energy.
What the prize changes — and what it does not
Beyond the prize money, Sonatel supports the winners on the technical, network, marketing and product sides; its Start-up Lab and Orange Fab programmes claim more than 110 start-ups supported. The three winning projects will represent Senegal in the international round of POESAM.
Next: the regions, then beyond
Dakar, Kaolack, Banjul: that is where WURUS works today. The next step is less spectacular than a podium and far more decisive — being present in the other regions of Senegal, where a shopkeeper has never had management software within reach. Then WAEMU, then the continent.
Thank you to Sonatel and the Orange Digital Center, to the jury, and to everyone who carried this project. And above all, thank you to the businesses that trust us: those were your numbers on the table that Tuesday.