Kenyan events mobile app wins Africa competition

Afrosilicon has emerged the winner in the ‘Apps for Africa 2012’ competition, sponsored by Ericsson, Sony and Google. Afrosilicon submitted a mobile app idea that allows users to stay up to date with what’s happening, where it’s happening and why it’s happening.

Three students from JKUAT, who make up Afrosilicon, developed the ‘Funkies’ app that also notifies the user of upcoming events while allowing him/her to reserve a ticket for the event via mobile money partners, and even share details of the event via social networks.

Afrosilicon’s win comes barely weeks after another Kenyan developer – James Mwai – won a Nokia global challenge for his location-based mobile app

Lars Lindén, Head of Ericsson Region Sub-Saharan Africa said that innovative solutions coming from the continent, only confirms that there is much talent and thereby potential for the growth of society, life and business.

“The fact that almost 50 per cent of global submissions came from sub-Saharan Africa aligns with our vision of a Networked Society. We have been engaging with various industry stakeholders to drive this development, where people, knowledge, devices and information are networked,” said Linden.

This is the 3rd year for the Ericsson Application Awards global app competition, but the first year for a regional variant. The competition focuses on the Android platform for application developers in sub-Saharan Africa, considering the popularity of Android mobile apps.

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