In its marketing campaign for the iPhone, Apple and AT&T relentlessly repeat the well known mantra “There’s an app for that,” showcasing just how easy it is to find points of interest in Paris or to perfectly time one’s filet Mignon.
But with hundreds of thousands of apps being churned out, not just for iPhones, but also for Android devices, Nokia’s Ovi store, RIM’s app store and others, surely there are apps out there that go beyond simply serving yuppie interests, with the goal of actually effecting a change in the world?
Mobile app developers in Africa are already looking at ways to answer “yes,” to that question and are actively working towards creating apps which could eventually change the lives of their countrymen in significant ways.
Because of their relative low-cost and lack of wired lines, mobile phones have become the main source of telecommunication in Africa, with subscription rates seeing astounding 50% increases over recent years according to the likes of the International Communication Union.
The latest data shows there are currently 280 million phone subscribers in Africa, an overall mobile penetration rate of 30.4%, and the numbers are growing daily.
Unlike their absent minded [app-sent minded?] counterparts developing mobile game apps in the West, developers working in the African market are taking advantage of mobile’s growing foothold to tackle some of the continent’s most difficult problems, like the ruthless cycle of poverty.
For farmers receiving a pittance of profit for their arduous work, app creators believe what’s missing is information.
This prompted Amos Gichamba, a 26-year old former dairy farmer from Kenya, to creat a text-message based app which lets farmers type in queries about local market prices and supply. The queries are answered by SMS, allowing the farmers to know up-to-date market prices for the goods they’re selling.
Gichamba says farmers are regularly exploited by those who buy their milk and sell it to dairy companies, and hopes his app will be able to cut out the middle man, or at least give farmers more buck for their back-breaking toil.
But it is banking and commerce applications that may be making an even greater difference in African lives.
In 2006, Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel peace prize for his groundbreaking work on micro-loans. Yunus argued that the way out of poverty was not to throw money at people, but rather to give them the tools and abilities to work themselves out of poverty on their own.
African app makers seem to agree, and mobile banking apps across the continent have begun to flourish.
One example is Mpesa, a mobile phone payment system being used in Kenya.
Currently, Mpesa allows Kenyans to make domestic and international payments, but over time it could be used to provide micro-loans or build credit for people who could never have gotten an account at a brick and mortar bank.
According to Yunus and others, developments like these – apps that give you credit – are key to lifting people out of poverty.
Are Westerners paying any attention to this? Are the massive conglomerate corporations?
Perhaps, instead of focusing its energy and passion on helping money-hungry developers make apps like the iFart, iTinkle, wobble iBoobs and more, the likes of Apple and Google could direct some of their largesse to directives in Africa, where they could train entrepreneurs to make meaningful, empowering, and continent-shaking applications.
That may not be shiny, sexy, or profitable, but it is the right thing to do.
Francis Bacon once wrote that “knowledge is power.” One can only hope that perhaps Africa will manage to empower itself on the wings of wireless technology.
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Igor Hiller is a freelance writer and contributor to RCR Unplugged. He is also the resident advice columnist for UC Santa Barbara. You can read more from Igor over on his blog, DearIgor.com. You can also reach out to Igor by e-mail at igor[at]DearIgor.com
