Winners of the 2020 MTN Business App of the Year Awards announced

EasyEquities, an online platform in the investment sector has won the 2020 MTN Business App of the Year Awards along with first place in the Best Consumer Solution category, claiming the grand prize of an international trip to a tech-related destination valued at R200 000.

 EasyEquities wins the 2020 MTN Business App of the Year Awards

The winner was announced at the 2020 MTN Business App of the Year Awards ceremony held virtually on 29 October.

The crowned winner

EasyEquities, is an online platform that allows anyone to purchase shares in the brands and companies, making it safe and easy to help new and existing investors sustain their investment portfolios with detailed account overviews and personalised reporting. With no monthly brokerage fees, investors have the capability to grow their wealth.

Kholo Magagane, Head of Marketing at MTN SA Business, praises the MTN Business App of the Year as it encourages innovators to create services that benefit South Africans.

“Since its inception, the MTN Business App of the Year Awards has remained a highlight on the annual ICT calendar. It has unleashed apps that are now household names and provide services to millions of South Africans. They have impacted positively on virtually all aspects of life from financial services, to healthcare and education.”

New categories

Three top performing apps were awarded R100 000 in a new category called Best Youth App, where developers between the ages 18 and 26, can compete for the title.

The MTN Business App Academy was also introduced to mentor and upskill potential developers skillset, to ensure new inventions in the Information and Communications Technology sector.

Through the academy, potential developers were given the opportunity to take part in a six-week online coding programme, followed by a 72-hour hackathon that took place in September. This resulted in the winning solutions automatically qualifying as finalists in the awards categories of ‘Best Breakthrough Developer’ and the ‘Best Youth App’ category.

Magagane comments on the importance of all the developers in creating apps that benefit the lives of South Africans.

“We are proud that MTN is helping to create a pipeline of future digital brilliance. South Africa, its people, communities and the economy will all benefit from these innovations taking place within the digital economy.”

Category winners

Best Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) was awarded to Examsta, SA’s first learning platform that allows students to revise subjects such as Geography, History, Business Studies and Life Sciences from grades 10-12.

The Best Enterprise Solution award and The Peoples Choice Award was appointed to a household name, Checkers Sixty60, who has made online shopping convenient.

Best Incubated Solution was  awarded to Technishen, an on-demand mobile app that uses geo-location to find a supplier within a 10 km radius. It offers support from a number of technicians to assist with IT, electrical installations and maintenance, auto mechanics and plumbing services.

Most Innovative Solution was awarded to BirdPro, an app that caters to birdwatchers in SA. The app identifies more than 6 500 birds and includes over 1 700 bird calls. The name of the birds are also available in all SA languages, German, French and Porteguese.

Lexie Hearing app won the award for Best Health Solution. The app provides an animated step-by-step instruction guide that informs users how to participate in the clinically valid two minute hearing check, featured on the app. This will automatically program the Bluetooth Lexie hearing aids based on the results of the user.

Best Agricultural Solution was awarded to GreenFingers Mobile, an app that eliminates paper from agroforestry management systems. It benefits smallholder farmers as they can now digitally track their finances.

Xitsonga Dictionary won the acclaim of the Best Educational Solution award. The app translates thousands of English words to Xitsonga via a vision feature on app. Users can take a picture of an object and Xitsonga Dictionary will translate it to Xitsonga.

StokFella which allows stokvels to manage, consolidate, communicate and analyse their financial activity was named the Best Financial Solution is. A great solution for a R50-billion industry with over 11-million members.

Bottles won the award for Best ‘South African’ App. Bottles recently partnered with Pick n Pay to expand their services by not only providing the service of alcohol delivery but also including grocery delivery.

For the Best Breakthrough Solution category, Matric Live took the top spot. Lesego Finger, 21-year-old developer created the app that includes practice materials, study guides, learning resources and past papers for grade 10-12.

The new category, Best Youth App was awarded to Guardian Health, receiving R50 000 from MTN Pulse. This solution consists of a patient and paramedic app as well as a management portal.

The first runner up, winning R30 000, for Best Youth App is Phanda Ispani which connects recruiters and those looking for a job. Second runner up, receiving R20 000, was awarded to Scan & Go. This app allows people to connect to businesses through virtual business cards.

Huawei sponsored their own category and their winner was an app called My Pregnancy Journey which keeps track of the mother and baby’s progress throughout pregnancy. Features include relevant health information, exercise and nutrition suggestions, reminders and calculations.

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