Ghana, a strong West African tech startup region, played host to the first ever TopApps Awards ceremony, held in Accra last week.
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The ceremony recognised leading web and mobile applications in 10 categories and were decided through a mix of public voting and deliberation by judges.
Of the 65 nominees, MEST incubator startup Dropifi walked away as overall winners, followed by 233Law, winner of two categories.
The team behind Dropifi are re-imagining one of the web’s oldest and most resolute elements, the “Contact us” form. The Dropifi solution consists of a website plug-in, optional QR code (for print-outs) and an analytics tool. Dropifi won the Top App of the Year, Web App of the Year and Top User Experience App categories.
233Law won the Mobile App of the Year and Social App of the Year categories. The Android app provides access to Ghana’s constitution.
Hei Julor! won the SMS App of the Year category. The phone-based security alert system allows users in distress to send a blank SMS to the Hei Julor! emergency number at which point the service will alert a private security company as well as friends and relatives, trigger a radio announcement and notify the police.
The web and mobile ad network with an emerging market focus won the Most Innovative New App category.
FM Live, the flagship product of five-year-old Softreckon, won the Entertainment App of the Year category.
Other notable startups nominated for awards include customer feedback service Kuzima, a finalist in this year’s DEMO Africa event and Nandimobile — makers of customer support service Gripeline — winners at the LAUNCH conference in San Francisco in 2010.
