Do you want to make money easily??? Build smart mobile apps that solve people’s problems.

The global mobile app market is now worth over $50 billion. Although Africa
currently has the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world, its mobile
app market is still hardly developed. Around the world, mobile apps are
increasingly used to bridge the gap between the growing needs and demands of
the population on the one hand and poor public service provision on the other.

A mobile app is a software application developed specifically to be used on
mobile phones. Today, apps provide a wide range of useful services and are
also a common source of entertainment. There are apps for almost anything you
can think of: information services, news, games, social networking, chatting and
even restaurant and airline bookings.

Here are a couple of interesting mobile apps that are making waves on the
African continent solving African problems:

1. Afrinolly , which was developed in 2011, allows users to catch up on
   the latest entertainment news; follow movies, shows, and celebrities;
   share thoughts via a host of social networking sites; and discover and
   review movies and music videos. In less than a year after it was
   released to the public, Afrinolly was downloaded nearly half a million
   times.
   

2. SlimTrader allows users to buy or pay for goods and services via
   SMS or WAP.
   This app effectively helps its users to shop by text
   messaging and is the first platform in Africa to do so. Founded in
   2009, the service operates in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and South
   Africa.
   

3. Icow
   is an innovative mobile app powered by Safaricom which enables
   dairy farmers in Kenya to keep tabs on their cows and find tips on best
   practice. Data has shown farmers who used this app for up to seven
   months begin to realise an increase in milk output of between two and to
   three liters a day, which translates into an average increased income of
   roughly $300 a year.
   

Action & Tips
Get familiar with most popular apps and recognize patterns that contribute to that success. You
could also get inspired by some of the really successful apps elsewhere in the world and
see if some of those concepts could be translated into something similar for Africa.
You can build your own simple app online on sites like appify.com, or get a freelancer –
for example, on elance.com – to do it for you.

Success Story

Chike Maduegbuna – Afrinolly (Nigeria)
Chike Maduegbuna, the founder and owner of Afrinolly, only created the app
in 2011 and today it has been downloaded over four million times. Her app

has transformed Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry by creating a movie
trailer platform for new audiences, and she hopes that it will also inspire
young film professionals who were aspiring to a career in Nigeria’s film
industry.