Safaricom Appwiz Challenge dubs Kenyan student news app winner

Kenyan campus news startup Magazine Reel has won the Safaricom Appwiz Challenge — an initiative by the major telecom to promote mobile developers in Kenya.

Magazine Reel is described as a campus news site for students by students. The site has received over 250 000 visits per month, covering news, events, campus life, academics and sports, reports Techmoran. The app is currently available on Safaricom’s app store.

“While there are many people who still wait to watch the news every evening and read newspapers every morning, studies have shown that there are many tech-savvy youth who would rather access the news content on the go through their smart devices”, said Joe Ogutu, the Director for Strategy and Innovation at Safaricom.

The Appwiz Challenge required developers to focus on one of the following categories, including Mobile for Good and Community Development, Smart Business and Cloud Innovation, Financial Inclusion, Youth, Entertainment, Games and Media and Infrastructure and Utilities.

The other finalists included the following: neighbourhood app Ujirani, mobile revision game Ultipedia, location-based emergency app E-Merg, marketing app Guide rig, Mobile Point of sale systems MOPOS and MyDuka, story app Magic Books, social app Xoxo, travel scheduler Smart Travel, transport app Metro Jav and Sema which is multiple language chat service.

Magazine Reel won KSh1.7 million (over R200 000), while the runners up were awarded KSh1.2 million (roughly R150 000). Category winners Ujirani, Guide Rig and Smart Travel were rewarded with KSh200 000 (over R25 000).

Ogutu rounded-off highlighting the importance of Safaricom’s involvement in the entrepreneurial tech space:

Through the Safaricom Appwiz Challenge, we continue to support young entrepreneurs interested in establishing Mobile and ICT startups in Kenya through mentorship, training and rapid product development to ensure that start-ups develop and provide innovative, quality and relevant solutions to address challenges and needs faced by our consumers