Vodafone Ghana, in partnership with Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), has climaxed a three-day competition aimed at promoting mobile application development in the country.
The annual competition, dubbed ‘Hackathon’, seeks to unearth talent in mobile app development, especially locally-relevant applications that meet the needs of the Ghanaian market.
The event was also to help develop a suitable app for Vodafone Cash with four focal areas of health, entertainment, agriculture and finance.
The advent of mobile money in Africa, inspired by M-PESA — a product developed by Vodafone (Safaricom) in Kenya — has become the benchmark for a journey toward a society that relies heavily on mobile financial solutions.
According to Vodafone Ghana, the event forms part of the company’s lead-role in the telecoms sector, and the company will continue to lead in innovations that deliver quality service to customers and Ghanaians as a whole.
Julius Owusu Kyerematen, Director of Strategy and Innovations-Vodafone Ghana, speaking at the event held in Accra highlighted the need to develop locally-relevant applications that provide solutions to local problems.
Under the theme ‘A cash-lite society in Africa–powered by Vodafone Cash’, the event brought together 15 different app group developers, most of whom were drawn from educational institutions across the country.
Scratch IT, which was adjudged winner of the three-day competition by a panel of judges, took home GH₵5,000, a GH₵200 shopping voucher for each member, and a plaque.
The second and third-placed groups took home GH₵3,000 and GH₵1,000 plus shopping vouchers for each group member and a plaque.
All the top-three groups will also be supported by Vodafone to get their apps onto google playstore.
“We appreciate the opportunity given us by Vodafone, and as entrepreneurs we are prepared to work with Vodafone to make this product available to Ghanaians; especially students who want to purchase tertiary institutions’ admission forms,” said Blessing Onomesino, leader of the winning group, Scratch IT.
Akua Odoom, Managing Director of MEST, lauded the initiative — stressing that it is important for the country to begin inventing technological solutions to society’s problems through sustainable innovations.
“This is our very first pan-African Hackathon and I am very excited about it.
It is therefore necessary that we support Vodafone in any way we can as innovators,” she said.
“As an institution that wants to promote innovation in Africa, we have put in place strategic measures to support advancement in the ICT landscape,” she added.
Source: B&FT Online