The MTN Apps Challenge Version 2.0 competition ended at a ceremony in Accra where deserving App developers in Ghana received awards for their innovative mobile Apps. In a challenge which has been described by the developer community as one of the most highly contested, Buzztrick emerged as the overall winner of the competition.
Buzztrick is a new and exciting social content aggregation and lifestyle app that is designed to enrich the life of the smartphone user with an alternative approach to how they access everyday information. The app keeps you up-to-date with all the day’s happenings, from the latest news and the hottest events, to the most exciting places around you. Buzztrick's advanced #tag based aggregation system enables you keep up with specific content that might be of relevance to you via the ”Channel” feature.
The App was developed by myApp Inc. an organization established by a team of fresh graduates from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), whose objective is to research new technology trends and adopt them to improve their work. The team is made up of three gentlemen namely Elvis Agah, Henk Pieterson Oppong and Nana Ekow Taylor.
For their prize, the winning team received a cash amount of GHC 20,000, a plaque, a certificate and an all-expense paid trip to a telecoms conference.
Other app developers emerged Gold winners of the various categories of the competition , receiving cash prizes of GH₵15,000 each, a Plaque, a certificate and 1GB data for 12 months. They include: Isaac Onwukwe and Wilfred Attipoe with their app, Tales of Hassan topping the Games & Entertainment category; Elvis Agah, Nana Ekow Taylor, Henk Oppong with their Buzztrick app emerging as the Lifestyle Category Gold Winners; and Lovell Larbie, developer of the Wodaakye app, as Gold Winner for the Education category.
The MTN Apps Challenge Version 2.0 was launched in October 2014 to discover and reward local app developers who entered locally relevant apps in the areas of Education, Lifestyle, and Games & Entertainment.
A total of 100 entries were received, and reviewed by a panel of judges made up of experienced personalities from academia, mobile development and the telecoms industry. They shortlisted the app entries, to the top 20, using selection criteria based on innovation, functionality and commercial relevance.
In a speech read on his behalf at the awards ceremony by MTN Ghana Corporate Services Executive Cynthia Lumor, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Serame Taukobong, reiterated the importance of apps development to the world’s economy. He said MTN had noticed a significant improvement in the quality of Apps received and this was an indication that the app developer community in Ghana was seeing growth. He congratulated the winners of the challenge and called on Ghanaians to embrace the new Apps.
The guest speaker for the occasion, Mrs. Dorothy Gordon, Executive Director of the Kofi Annan ICT Center of Excellence, commended MTN for supporting the app developer community in Ghana and Africa as a whole. She lauded the MTN Apps Challenge initiative and urged MTN to endeavor to bring all the apps developed in their various markets together to build a very vibrant app developer community for Africa.
The winning apps: ‘Buzztrick’, ‘Tales of Hassan’ and ‘Wodaakye’ will be uploaded on the MTNPlay platform as well as the devices of MTN’s mobile device partners, Tecno and Huawei. Customers are encouraged to visit and download the apps to have a feel of the ingenuity of our local app developers.
MTN remains committed to leading in enhancing the capacity of individuals in a bold new digital world.
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