Greater local app development is the key to sustaining a South African cellular market with significantly more mobile devices than users.

"South Africa is Africa's biggest economy and the most mature cellular market with an impressive 130% mobile penetration. When there are more cellphones than citizens, the best way to sustain growth is to boost average revenue per user," says WASPA's Ongopotse Motlhanke.

WASPA is consequently urging its members to enter the AppsAfrica.com Awards 2016 before entries for the continent-wide competition close on 20 September. WASPA represents the interests of some 350 VAS providers, a large number of which provide mobile content and applications that can be accessed on smartphones and feature phones.

"WASPA is an enthusiastic supporter of the app development goals of the AppsAfrica.com competition. Last year's awards attracted entries from 21 countries, and we'd like this year's entries from homegrown South African app entrepreneurs to really shine," said Mr Motlhanke.

WASPA has previously highlighted the positive relationship between economic growth and cellular usage that increasingly comprises less voice access and more data-intensive app interaction. The worldwide GSM Association found that every doubling of mobile data use adds a solid 0.5 percentage points to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Awards celebrate the enormous growth in mobile, technology and entrepreneurship in Africa and the organisers are encouraging mobile and tech ventures across Africa to submit entries for the 10 categories before the 20 September 2016 deadline.

The awards seek to highlight the positive impact in 10 categories from ventures who can clearly demonstrate innovation using mobile or technology. The ten award categories are as follows: Disruptive Innovation Award, Best Social & Messaging Award, Best African App Award, Enterprise Solution Award, News & Entertainment Award, Educational Award, Fintech Award, Social Impact Award, Brand on Mobile Award, and the Women in Tech Award.

This means mobile, tech ventures and leading women in Africa have just two weeks left to submit their entries via the appsafrica.com website. An award of particular interest to WASPA members will surely be the Appsafrica.com Innovation Award 2016, the winner of which will be announced at an event in Cape Town on 14 November 2016.

"App development is the next mobile frontier. Like value-added services before them, apps are the current favorites to boost average revenue per user. Greater app uptake has been proven to positively impact every economic indicator important to a developing economy, from employment to GDP growth," concluded Mr Motlhanke.