MTN has announced the winners of its 2021 Business App of the Year Awards, which saw a gamified language learning app Ambani Africa take home the most prizes.
The awards saw a diverse range of solutions entered into the running, with MTN noting that over 1000 entries were submitted for consideration.
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Wanda Matandela, Chief Business Enterprise Officer of MTN Business, says that the awards have grown to the point of seeing a new breed of developers.
“The new breed of developers that have emerged over the years are now as likely to be young entrepreneurs launching grocery delivery services as actuaries challenging the dominance of traditional insurance giants,” Matandela said.
Categories in the award included Best Gaming Solution, Best Health Solution, Best Consumer Solution, and Best Enterprise Solution, among others.
The 2021 awards also included a hackathon award and Campus Cup award.
This gave students and youth a chance to compete in the awards. The Campus Cup Challenge included prize money of R100 000.
MTN has announced that the challenge will now be a regular category in future awards.
“As the number of entries has soared over the years, so has the number of categories,” Matandela noted.
“This year, app developers competed in 14 categories and were judged against their peers for their contribution to making life easier for consumers, to health, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), agriculture, education, and finance amongst others.”
MTN 2021 app awards winners
Winners ranged from smaller startups and new companies to established giants like Takealot.
However, the Ambani Africa app took home the most awards. It won the categories for Best Gaming Solution, Best Educational, and Best South African Solution.
It also won the overall award for Best App of the Year — meaning it took home the R1 million prize that comes with the award.
The free gaming app is aimed at young learners to teach them local languages. It can teach children aged two to eight years old isiZulu, isiXhosa, Setswana, Sepedi, Tshivenda, and English.
The app also has an AR component that allows you to download AR books that children can use to learn words.
Other features of the app include language quiz games and online tutoring.
You can see a full list of category winners below:
- Best Enterprise Solution: iiDENTIFii app
A remote biometric digital authentication and on-boarding platform. - Most Innovative Solution: Hellopay SoftPOS
A contactless payment acceptance app that allows merchants to use an NFC-enabled Android phone as a card acceptance device. - Best Health Solution: Guardian Health Platform
A telehealth platform that includes virtual appointments and other digital health services. - Best Gaming Solution: Ambani Africa
- Best Agricultural Solution: Murimi
An agritech platform that includes automation and machine learning tools for farmers. - Best Educational Solution: Ambani Africa
- Best Financial Solution: Shyft
A shares and FX trading apps aimed at ordinary people. - Best Hackathon Solution: Sisa
A mental health solution. - Best ‘South African’ App: Ambani Africa
- Best Campus Cup Solution: UniWise
An app that summarizes different university prospectuses for students and lets them enter their marks to start searching for courses they qualify for. - Best African Solution: Kazi
A Kenyan task-app that allows you to find help for odd jobs and residential services such as repairs. - Best Consumer Solution: Takealot app
Takealot’s online shopping app. - Best Women in STEM: Rekindle Learning app
An upskilling and reskilling platform. - Huawei Category 15: Roadsave
An automotive app that includes emergency support and access to financing and quotes. - People’s Choice Award: Afrihost
Afrihost’s ClientZone app for customers.
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Feature image: MTN
*Editor’s note: Updated with details on overall winner of awards
