Out of over 100 projects received after the launch, 48 made it into the second round of auditions. App developers were invited to meet a panel of judges, made up of experts from the Mobile Apps industry and academia for the final vetting process. The candidates took turns to present their Apps to the judges who based their assessment of the application on their user friendliness, robustness, compatibility, security, app authentication mechanisms, operating platform, best practices and ingenuity.

At the end of the vetting process, 25 finalists have been shortlisted for the awards. The final date for the MTN Apps Challenge v5.0 Awards is 21st June, 2018 and the  awards ceremony will take place at MTN House. The ultimate winner will take home GHC 20,000, and 4G devices whilst the other category winners will each take home GHC 10,000 and 4G devices.

In a statement, the Ag. Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr. Noel Kojo-Ganson said, “In line with MTN’s vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world, MTN will continue to take advantage of the rapid technological advancement to encourage the development of exciting mobile applications which are relevant to the local market.” He added, “This year our focus was also to encourage more females to take up app development, in view of that we introduced a new category to reward the, “Best Female Developer.”

The MTN Apps Challenge, has so far discovered some very innovative Apps, notable among which are Setriakor Nyomi’s Oware 3D App and Nana Ekow Taylor and friends’ “Buzztrick App, which emerged winners of Versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the competition, Kwaku Tabiri’s “Wheelo” and Edem Morny’s “Amatsii”  for versions 3.O and 4.O respectively.

This year’s event received participants from Senior High Schools, Tertiary Institutions and freelancers who submitted projects in the categories of mobile apps, Internet of Things (IoT), and animated videos.

MTN’s main objective for organising the Apps challenge competition is to harness local talents in application development, build strong affinity with the developer community and provide an opportunity for developers to market their content via MTN platforms. It is   also to help support the country’s national development through the creation of locally relevant and user –friendly ICT solutions to individuals and the business community.

About MTN Ghana

MTN Ghana is the market leader in the increasingly competitive mobile telecommunications industry in Ghana, offering subscribers a range of exciting options under Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go Services. The company has committed itself to delivering reliable and innovative services that provide value for subscribers in Ghana’s telecommunications market. Since its entry into Ghana in 2006, MTN has continuously invested in expanding and modernizing its network in order to offer superior services to a broad expanse of the nation. Total network investments from 2006-2017 are about $3.615 Billion. MTN has the widest network coverage across Ghana. With the commercial launch of 4G LTE services, MTN became the only mobile operator providing 4G services in all regional capitals and large cities. The company has also built three modern switch and data centres to deliver stable, reliable, efficient and robust Telecom and Data Services to customers.

For further information, visit www.mtn.com.gh.