General News of Monday, 17 June 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Mobile app that turns phones to security devices launched

Frederick Oti Mensah is the Head of Software Development at Millionsol play videoFrederick Oti Mensah is the Head of Software Development at Millionsol

A mobile app has been introduced in Ghana to help curb the menace of road accidents, armed robberies and fire outbreaks.

The ROADTOP app developed by a Ghanaian technological company, Millionsol was launched Monday, June 17, 2019, at the International Press Centre.

According to the developers of the ROADTOP app, security is a shared responsibility thus the need for innovative technologies to facilitate the fight against the several security threats in the country.

The uniqueness of the app, Head of Software Development, Frederick Oti Mensah explained, is in the fact that it has been designed to report incidents of reckless driving, accidents, robbery attacks, fire outbreaks and even kidnapping.

“ROADTOP is designed to make it easy for the law enforcement agencies to be aware of whatever that is happening in the country...whether you’re at home, on the road. We are giving Ghanaians the option to report accidents, fire outbreaks, over speeding and all of that to the law enforcement agencies.” He said.

He added that users do not have to make calls when lodging complaints and there is also an option to attach photos for precision.

Mr. Oti Mensah indicated that the app has also been developed to help locate missing persons with its feature of identifying the last location of the person through its GPS tracker.

With regards to operationalization of the app, he noted that negotiations are far advanced for partnership with relevant authorities and stakeholders.
“We have sent letters to the various law enforcement agencies and we’re dealing with them at the moment to come on board. For any of these things to work effectively we need them on board...we are doing paperwork and we’re pushing them to come on board.”



Currently, the ROADTOP app is only available on Google play store but the company has promised a gradual transition to other platforms.

As part of future plans for the app, the company is keen on adding several features which will include a viable feedback system to accept and install tailor-made updates to the app, sharing of live location as well as lodging complaint through text messages for people without smartphones.