The challenge is aimed at empowering young developers who want to start their own businesses and make a difference in their communities. The overall winners will qualify to enter the 2016 MTN Business App of the Year Awards as well as financial support towards advertisement of the winning app.
"We are very excited to be partnering with mLab for the MTN SA Foundation Community App Challenge. Such initiatives support our strategic intent of creating sustainable value for our stakeholders as well as developing a force of entrepreneurs who have the right skills set to grow their business, contribute to the growth of the economy and create much-needed jobs," said Kusile Mtunzi-Hairwadzi, general manager of the MTN SA Foundation.
The previous winners included Voonja App - a community announcement solution, New Start App that deals with male circumcision issues and Pink Drive, an app that deals with breast and prostate cancer. Each of these apps were awarded R30,000 worth of advertising and were incubated and mentored by mLab for a year.
"We believe in building new and sustainable businesses, and this effectively shifts the MTN Community App Challenge from being merely a competition to a potential supplier development exercise," Mtunzi-Hairwadzi said. Currently, an expert panel of judges are adjudicating the ICT prototypes of the 30 talented graduate app developers.
