Africa is playing a significant role in Mobile App development, and not only with applications aimed at improving the user’s social media experience. Rather, Africa-centric Apps are aimed at making a positively tangible intervention in the daily lives of people on the continent.
Many areas in Africa are less advanced in terms of telecommunications infrastructure of the so-called ‘established’ world. This shortfall has inspired a rush to create and deploy mobile applications to fill some of the crucial societal needs that people living in developed countries take for granted. M-Pesa – the mobile money App – is a good example. In Africa many people do not have easy access to a bank, M-Pesa allows users to send and receive money via their cell phones. This means people do not have to travel for hours to get to a bank, and they do not have to risk carrying around cash.
Another simple yet ingenious – and typically ‘Afrocentric’ – application that directly improves people’s lives is called ICow. This App sends relevant, up-to-date information to subsistence dairy farmers who own only one or two cows. The information helps them to increase their milk yield, keep their livestock healthy and sell their excess supply.
Due to the significance of the App industry to the continent, ‘Apps World Africa’ will once again be an important focus at the 2015 AfricaCom Conference. Senior Producer at Apps World, Katie Bilton said: “Apps World Africa is the place to be on 17-18 November for anyone with an interest in this pioneering industry. Our conference agenda is jammed packed with the latest content for developers, entrepreneurs and start-ups to learn and expand their knowledge, including a free Android coding lab and building an app in the quickest amount of time possible using the smallest amounts of data, an important consideration across the continent.”
Issues around how to effectively monetise apps, increase the Return on Investment (ROI) and strengthen business models, will be key discussion topics, said Bilton. “Other topics will outline some of the mistakes made by developers when optimising their apps; how to provide security to prevent hacking sensitive data; and how to customise their approach for different platforms and how developers and MNOs can work together,” she said.
Panellists for these sessions include experts in the industry such as: Su Kahumbu, Founder, iCow; Ethel Cofie, Founder, Women in Tech Africa; Andrew McHenry, Co-Chairperson, Mobile Monday Johannesburg; Alon Lits, Uber’s General Manager in Sub-Saharan African; and Sebastien Crozier, Orange. The sessions will take the form of round table and panel discussions.
They say the proof is in the pudding and in 2015, AppsWorld Africa’s own networking App will assist developers connect with like minds and make valuable contacts.
According to Bilton, all African application developers (who form 40% of the attendance), start-ups or coders who wish to attend AppsWorld Africa may register for a free conference pass.
