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