Tech in Africa: Homegrown Apps Transforming the Continent
These innovative apps tackle medicine, business and more.
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Innovation in Africa? There's an App for That - Beating out both the United States and Europe, Africa boasts a staggering 650 million mobile phone subscribers, according to the World Bank. Innovative start-ups founded by local entrepreneurs and developers have sprung up across the continent, all aspiring to revolutionize business, agriculture, medicine, entertainment and more. Keep reading to discover the mobile applications paving the way for a better Africa. —Patrice Peck (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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iCow (Kenya) - Launched in 2010 by Kenyan organic farmer Su Kahumbu, iCow helps cow herders track the gestation period of their cows, compare market rates and receive veterinary care and feeding schedules. Aside from helping Kenyan farmers increase their productivity and sales, this innovative mobile app has reinforced Kenya’s reign as one of the most tech-savvy nations in Africa. The country’s leading mobile network operator Safaricom partnered with iCow in June 2013 to help more farmers access the application.(Photo: iCow)
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Ffene (Uganda) - Winner of the 2012 Apps4Africa competition, Ffene is a low-cost business management platform that helps small and medium businesses run more efficiently, make better decisions and save money on administrative costs. Founder and developer Titus Mawano of Uganda named the app after the Luganda word for “jackfruit,” a familiar and non-technical brand name to appeal to Ugandan businesses. (Photo: FFene)
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MPepea (Kenya) - Kenyans Edwin Maina and Dan Munga were inspired to create M-Pepea after encountering a number of people in dire need of emergency money. The first service offered from the co-founders’ 2010 firm Raven Limited, M-Pepea offers real-time emergency credit to registered clients anywhere and anytime in Kenya. The service is geared towards corporate clients, as well as N.G.O.’s with traveling employees. All that is required is a text message listing the user’s desired amount, which the user then receives shortly afterwards.(Photo: Mpepea)
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Prowork (Nigeria) - Nigerian developer Francis Onwumere launched Prowork, a web and mobile project management tool that enables businesses to create and assign tasks and track project status in real-time. Also a winner of the 2012 Apps4Africa competition, Onwumere has been making waves in the international technology scene, including being named one of Global Forum’s top 50 global entrepreneurs.(Photo: Prowork)
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Saya (Ghana) - A Whatsapp for non-smartphone users, Ghana’s Saya Mobile offers instant messaging, text messaging, group chats and other services, geared specifically to Africa and other emerging markets. Since launching their start-up at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2012, co-founders Robert Lamptey and Badu Boahen have bootstrapped this popular application to viral heights in India, Indonesia, Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria.(Photo: Saya)
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NikoHapa (Kenya) - Similar to Foursquare but tweaked to target East Africans, NikoHapa — two Swahili words for “I am here” — offers users a customer loyalty reward scheme that gives frequent customers earned discounts upon amassing coupons from and checking in to participating establishments. Jeremy Gordon, a Stanford University engineering student at the time, co-founded the start-up with Kenyan developers Bernard Owuor and Caine Wanjau.(Photo: NikoHapa)
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Found (South Africa) - Like most successful start-ups, Found was born from the makers of Pashash, a South African application that allowed users to share photographs of interesting items they discovered while shopping. Going off of the notion of social shopping, the team at Found decided to focus on helping users discover, share and save deals in their area.(Photo: Found)
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M-Farm (Kenya) - M-Farm, a company co-founded in 2010, was launched by three Kenyan women — Jamila Abass, Linda Kwamboka, and Susan Oguya — who met through iHub, Nairobi-based technology hub. Initially a texting tool that permitted subscribing farmers to find buyers for their produce and receive price information, the agribusiness company has evolved into a mobile application — thanks to a partnership with Samsung — to provide users with real-time crop information daily.(Photo: M-Farm)
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SliceBiz (Ghana) - Ghana-based businessman William Edem Senyo and California social worker Heather Cochran teamed up to develop SliceBiz, a winner of the 2012 AppsforAfrica competition. This Ghanaian start-up aims to popularize crowdfunding in Africa and emerging markets by providing a service that allows users to deliver short, pre-recorded pitches to potential investors over the phone.(Photo: SliceBiz)
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Olalashe Emergency SOS (Kenya) - Developed by Kenyan entrepreneur David Lemayian, Olalashe is a geo-alert application that lets users immediately reach their emergency contacts. By selecting a single-click widget on her mobile screen, a pre-set message is sent to the user’s emergency contacts along with a link to her location. Available at no cost, this mobile application won the Social/Communication category of Google’s Android Developer Challenge, Sub-Saharan Africa.(Photo: Olalashe)
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Mxit (South Africa) - Mxit is a free instant messaging application that operates on multiple mobile and desktop platforms and connects to Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, and other social network and instant messaging providers. Founded in South Africa by Namibian-born entrepreneur Herman Heunis, the company boasts more than 43 million registered users in 128 countries, with a new registration rate as high as 50,000 per day.(Photo: Mxit)
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medAfrica (Kenya) - Currently operating in Kenya and Uganda, this award-winning application seeks to create health awareness among customers “from the comfort of their mobile phones,” as explained on medAfrica’s website. Services include pairing users with relevant specialists and cracking down on fraud and malpractice through accurate lists of licensed medical professionals.(Photo: MedAfrica)
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MoBiashara (Nigeria) - Previously a finance manager at Microsoft in Seattle, Nigerian Femi Akinde founded MoBiashara to help mom and pop shops and small to medium-sized businesses get online for the first time. In four steps — registration, screening process, inventory management, and e-commerce set-up — local business owners who previously struggled with placing their services and brand online receive a customized e-commerce platform.(Photo: Mobiashara)
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M-Pesa (Kenya) - Considered the most successful mobile phone-based money transfer and microfinancing service in the world, M-Pesa was launched in 2007 by Kenyan mobile giant Safaricom. Through this popular service, merchants can receive mobile payments for goods and services, which reduces any risk associated with handling cash, such as theft and counterfeit bills. (Photo: Mpesa)