By Prince Osuagwu

Apparently piqued by myriads of problems emanating from emerging markets of Africa and the Middle East, telecommunications giant, MTN has thrown open a competition to challenge application developers around the world to come forward with innovative apps that can solve problems of Africa and the Middle East.

By launching the apps competition, MTN is opening its innovative scope to the wider developer community in a bid to speed up the adoption of data-enabled technologies – especially those that feature digital content developed with the African and Middle Eastern user in mind.

Throwing open the modalities of the competition, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer, Christian de Faria, said that “the more user-friendly and relevant the app, the more differentiated it will be, thus increasing the likelihood of its adoption on a wide scale in two vast markets that are hungry for local solutions. These solution are not the least of which is digital content with an African and Middle Eastern flair,” he added

The MTN App Store, which is currently in the works, is shaping up to be the largest in the two regions with killer applications that speak to the needs and aspirations of users in MTN’s 21 markets across Africa and the Middle East.

De Faria said that “MTN’s vision for the App Store is to have an apps platform which vast majority of applications is, by and large, created by the developer community. This way, we hope to offer MTN App Store subscribers unmatched user experience, with exciting and varied content that cuts across all facets of life,”

He explains that there is a huge apps developer community out there, but many of their inventions do not get wide adoption.

“The apps competition we are launching today will therefore give the developer community an alternative, and serve as a distribution channel that reaches more than 150 million MTN mobile subscribers,” he said

To qualify for some prizes, budding app developers are expected to upload their apps – from the most basic to the sophisticated, yet user-friendly ones on MTN’s global digital portal.