2022 MTN Business App of the Year Awards recipients will help SA achieve its digital potential, says MTN Business

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weaknesses and gaps in South Africa’s digital economy, setting in motion a reaction that has seen citizens, corporates and small businesses ramping up on digital innovation.

Both the public and private sectors responded swiftly to the pandemic-induced pressures and, embracing the challenge, worked to broaden the base of digital services available to the benefit of thousands of South Africans. But for millions across the country, the digital divide still exists, says Kholofelo Magagane, Head of Marketing at MTN Business.

When considering the 548 million registered fintech accounts in the sub-Saharan region, the potential for technology to help leapfrog societal and economic differences is clear. Of these registered accounts, more than 150 million are active monthly. This means 43% of active mobile money accounts worldwide, including MTN’s own MoMo, exist on our doorstep, Magagane said, speaking at the 2022 MTN App of the Year Awards in Johannesburg.

“We are proud that we are able to play a pivotal role in changing thinking about ICT competencies. Our aim with the MTN Business App of the Year is to create a tech-first developer ecosystem by recognising and rewarding the talent that will build a new future for our continent.”

Over 15 of the very best coders, tech enthusiasts, students, start-ups and lesser-known app developers were recognised in the 11th Annual MTN Business App of the Year Awards, with R1 million rewarded to the grand prize winner.

The winners per category are:

• Best South African Solution – Eyerus, an app with an exclusively South African flavour and purpose that enables users to indicate how safe or unsafe they feel in their current surroundings through the use of four safety status modes.
• Best Consumer Solution – 22seven, a consumer-centric app that makes the everyday lives of ordinary people easier and more convenient by helping users to better manage their money.
• Best Incubated Solution – sponsored by Tshimologong Precinct, this category awards an app created and built by an individual or team currently being developed by an accelerator or incubator hub. The winner is LayUp Payments app, which transforms a business’s Lay-By book into one-centralised digital payment platform.
• Best Enterprise Solution – a local business app that is specifically targeted to solving business challenges, called My Smart City.
• Best Hackathon Solution – YabiSaba, and app developed by the entrant that produced the best app as a result of participating in the MTN Business App Academy and the hackathon. It’s a booking platform that helps digital nomads to discover live-and-work yacht co-working spaces around the world.
• Best Gaming Solution – a hotly contested category that is open to mobile, PC and console platforms or the use of gamification was won by Recess, which takes the e-learning experience to the next level by making exam preparation social, fun and visual.
• Best Health Solution – sponsored by Sentech, this year’s winner, for its support of health and wellness, is Buzzer Community Safety, an app developed to keep communities safe and connected.
• Best Agricultural Solution – sponsored by Tshikululu Social Investments, the award focuses on solving the growing agricultural challenges and capacity building in Africa. This year’s winner is Axl, an online equipment rental platform designed to facilitate the convenient hiring of equipment.
• Best Educational Solution – awarded to a solution that focuses on solving the education challenges in Africa, Recess won for taking the e-learning experience to the next level by making exam preparation social, fun and visual.
• Best Campus Cup Solution – Notes, an educational solution that allows students to share their study material with their peers. This category is awarded to a college or university student, or team, who designs the most outstanding app.
• Best African Solution – open to all app developers and coders from the continent, the winner is Appy Saúde, an online platform aggregates the stock information of hundreds of pharmacies.
• Best Breakthrough Developer – this award is given to a new up-and-coming, or garage developer, and this year’s winner is Chillers Market, an application that allows South Africans to buy and sell in a convenient and secure way.
• People’s Choice Award – voted for by the public, this year’s winner is Koer, the world's first Afrikaans mobile dating app.
• Best Financial Solution – awarded to locally developed applications that are focused specifically on the financial services sector, this year’s winner, Franc, is making investment easy and accessible.
• Most Innovative Solution – sponsored by IDEMIA, this awarded went to Shoprite SA, of it’s unique, ground-breaking and disruptive app that is first-to-market and offers a no frills, no fuss app that brings easy, simple banking to South Africans.
• Best Huawei App Gallery Category – this category, which is reserved for apps developed for the Huawei App Gallery, that are HMS compatible or have integrated an HMS toolkit, was awarded to HOMii, an app that allows users to stay in the heart of the city, feel the pulse of the people and be part of the HOMii community.

And the grand prize-winning app – the MTN Business App of the Year – and the winner of R1 million in prize money, is the Shoprite App.

“This year, the MTN Business App of the Year Awards attracted just over 1 000 entries – with many of the entered apps focused on solving societal and business problems. We congratulate all our winners and wish them well with their future endeavours. We look forward to a day, very soon, when our lesser-known winning apps become household names due to their positive and lasting impact on businesses and consumers into the future.”

For full details on all the winners, visit: www.appoftheyear.co.za.