MTN Ghana Limited, as part of measures to support Ghanaians to develop relevant local apps for the Ghanaian market, has launched MTN Apps Challenge version 2.0 in Accra.

The Chief Marketing Officer MTN Ghana, Rahul De, indicated that as the smartphone and apps market develops globally, it is important that local developers are given support to create locally relevant applications for the domestic market.

“The mobile application market is inextricably linked with the explosion of smartphone penetration and usage by consumers worldwide. As the smartphone market grows rapidly in Ghana, and especially on MTN network, it is imperative that we have apps developed locally and tailored to our market,” he said.

The mobile application market is creating employment and generating income for an estimated number of 2.3 million people across the world. It is also said that apps generate around €10 billion per year in revenue for the European Union, which has about one 1 million apps available.

The last edition of the apps challenge was a success, as most of its winners are experiencing rapid patronage of their apps on MTN play and other platforms. Some of the winning apps for the last edition include Oware, which has seen more than 24,000 down-loads; Osiki; Ananse Fables; and Snaprecharge.

This year’s edition under the theme “Promoting innovative local apps development” is open for submission of apps from October to 28th of November 2014. It challenges Ghanaian app developers to code locally relevant and user-friendly apps to suit local taste.

Besides the opportunity to be given to winning developers to market their apps on MTN play and other platforms, winners in all three categories including education; style and entertainment; and games will receive an amount of GH?15,000 while the overall winner will take GH?20,000. There will also be prizes for runners up in each category.

Mr. Rahul De added that: “As the leading telecoms service provider with the vision of leading the delivery of a bold new digital world, the MTN Apps Challenge in Ghana forms part of a broader agenda for the MTN group to grow the app developer community in Africa, and also increase local content across our footprints.

We believe that gradually we will catch up with the rest of the world in growing our economies through mobile apps.

“MTN Apps Challenge Version 2.0 has one goal, and that is to reward the most innovative and locally-relevant mobile apps developers. Entries of apps will be accepted in three categories: education; lifestyle; and games and entertainment.”