Following the announcement of winners of the MTN Apps Challenge, leading telecommunications company, MTN Ghana has announced plans to sign contracts with the winners.
The telecommunication giant will sign a contract with the winners before the end of the year 2013 for their applications to be featured on the MTN Apps store in January 2014, MTN Ghana Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Serame Taukobong said.
“The real partnership between MTN and the Apps developers begins,” he added.
Setriakor Kobla Nyomi’s Oware 3D game won the apps challenge while Wahib Farhat and Festus Nwobodo emerged first and second Runner Ups respectively with their apps – Ananse Fables and Ghost. In all, five winners were selected.
According to Taukobong, research findings have shown that the evolution of mobile applications was emerging as a new revolution in the telecommunications industry.
Taukobong backed this fact quoting a report by Flurry Analytics in April 2013 which indicated that mobile applications as customer-centric technology is three times faster than social media in terms of connecting service providers to other end users.
He expressed satisfaction on the conclusion of the apps challenge stating that the objectives had, to a large extent, been met, having been able to successfully harness local talent in applications development and built a strong affinity with the developer community.
The MTN app store challenge which had a total number of 55 Applications received apps which included games, entertainment, cooking, health, education, sports and social media.
“We are impressed with the kind of applications we received during the period. A total of 55 Apps were received from individual and group developers. The Apps received covered various subject matter including games, entertainment, cooking, health, education, sports and social media Apps,” he said.
The challenge which was launched in Accra in August 2013 was introduced to encourage innovation and local App developers to develop applications that are locally relevant to their subscribers.
MTN organised the competition to harness local talents in application development, build strong affinity with the developer community and provide an opportunity for developers to market their content via its platforms. The Apps challenge was also initiated to help support the country’s national development through the creation of locally relevant and user-friendly ICT solutions to individuals and the business community.
In 2011, MTN Group launched a similar competition on the best Android Mobile Applications from Africa and the Middle East.
Just like in Nigeria, MTN enjoys the benefit of being a market leader in the increasingly competitive Ghanaian mobile telecommunications industry. The company currently has more than 12 million subscribers.
Taukobong promised that the network provider had put in place the necessary infrastructure to ensure effective service delivery.
He said MTN recently began rolling out of the 42 Megabits per second (mbps) technology on their network for subscribers in and around Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. The 42 Mbps is an enhanced form of the data connectivity on the 3G platform, which gives customers reliable network and extended capacity.
