More innovation from African developers

By Chukwuemeka Afigbo, Outreach Program Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa

Cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog

Developers play a crucial role in making the Internet relevant for Africans. This is why fostering a vibrant African developer ecosystem is very important to Google. Developers and tech entrepreneurs from across the continent joined thousands of their peers from all over the world to explore the latest tech innovations at Google I/O 2013 in San Francisco. Several of them were members of the Google Developer Groups in countries such as Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Togo and Uganda.

Hassan Nsubuga, Lead for GDG Mbale,Uganda with Google SVP Vic Gundotra at Google I/O

Luckily, participation was not limited to those who could make it to San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Developers back home were also able to get in on the action with more than 67 I/O Extended parties hosted by Google Developer Groups and Google Student Ambassadors across the continent where talks were streamed live to an excited audience.

Away from the excitement of I/O ‘13, it has been a busy year for many African developers and tech startups. We added six new apps to our African case studies page:

• Maji Dashboards and Virtual Kenya from Upande: websites that utilize the power of Google’s Geo tools to make information about Kenya readily accessible for better decision making, development planning, and education.
• ReadyCash from Parkway Projects: a home grown mobile money service from Nigeria with an app that leverages the power of the Android platform to integrate a unique QR code based payment system.
• Matatu is an Android version of a local card game from Uganda.
• ASiM, developed by Olivine Technology, is a real time inventory management solution with an Android client and App Engine backend.
• Asa: an Android tablet app by Nigeria’s Genii Games that brings the magic of African folktales to children of all ages.

Asa (African Folktales)

Flashback!

Remember AfriNolly – winner of 2011 Android developer competition? The app by Fans Connect Online now has over 2 million downloads across several platforms, with a new Android version support for 11 languages launched in May 2013. The Fans Connect Online team also ran a contest for African short films and created a radio show focused on the African film industry.

Keep an eye on our case studies page to follow the exploits of these and many more developers in Africa, as they continue to innovate with Google APIs and platforms.

Do you feel your app should be featured here? Let us know!


+Chukwuemeka Afigbo is a Program Manager in the Sub-Saharan Africa Outreach Team. He is passionate about making the internet more relevant to Africans. He is also an avid football (soccer) fan.

Posted by +Scott Knaster, Editor