Telecommunications group MTN hopes to build an ecosystem of budding problem-solving entrepreneurs and businesspeople as it introduces an academic element to the 2020 edition of the MTN Business App of the Year.

The MTN Business App of the Year Awards, now in its ninth year, will see the introduction of a dedicated application development and coding initiative, the MTN Business App Academy, as well as two new categories of Best Breakthrough Developer and Best Youth App.

“The MTN Business App of the Year Awards ecosystem continues to evolve and expand. It is now truly a year-long initiative focused on producing the highest calibre of cutting edge and market-ready solutions,” said MTN Business South Africa enterprise marketing GM Kholo Magagane.

Speaking to Engineering News & Mining Weekly, he outlined how the new academy will mentor and upskill aspiring youth for a career in application development in an attempt to create a “springboard” for new talent.

Participants will embark on a six-week online coding programme that feeds into the new categories of the app awards and, ultimately, into a 72-hour hackathon to be held in the first week of September to use their newly developed skills and knowledge to develop a solution.

A team of tutors will be on hand to help.

The solutions emerging from the hackathon will be entered into the ‘Best Breakthrough Developer’ and ‘Best Youth App’ categories, and will be part of the overall awards judging process.

“The objective being to solve a common social challenge facing South Africa. These are access to education, safety and health,” said Magagane, adding that the aim is to harness youthful thinking and energy to solve real problems in South Africa, and around the world, and upskill South Africans for a future in information and communications technology (ICT), software and mobile app development.

The App of the Year Awards are shifting from the recognition of excellence in technical development to the review of resolving real life challenges while creating “a new world of entrepreneurs, developers and potential businesspeople”.

The students from the MTN Business App Academy with the top three apps will be assisted to develop their apps into fully fledged solutions.

“A go-to-market strategy will then be devised to implement the solutions, with MTN assisting them to identify a customer, or customers, that are faced with problems that the market-ready solutions can solve,” Magagane explained.

Initially, MTN planned to establish incubation hubs across South Africa, with a limited intake of 50 students for each hub; however, the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown resulted in the academy adopting a virtual, centralised national academy.

Virtually, the academy was not restricted in the number of intakes, with the initial target of 300 already surpassed by a large margin, he pointed out.

Moving forward, MTN aims to embrace the digital future through a multipronged approach that will enable the inclusion of those that are not digitally equipped to participate virtually.

This will result in the extension of the virtual platform, with the reopening, eventually, of the physical incubation hubs to allow those without data or Internet access to also participate in the academic activities.

The plan is for the academy to develop into a fully-fledged development hub that MTN Business will run with regional partners, academic institutions and enterprise clients for many years to come.

“The MTN Business App of the Year has needed to keep pace alongside this evolution to ensure that it continues to make a real and meaningful impact – creating opportunities for tech innovators, while solving a range of socioeconomic issues,” he elaborated.

The number of submissions has increased year-on-year since inception, with over 600 entries received in 2019, and Magagane said that even more undiscovered and untapped tech talent in the country will be given an opportunity to flourish.

“It is anticipated that this year’s awards event will once again bring together a combination of more than 1 000 techies, leading app developers and key industry stakeholders – albeit through digital and virtual platforms.”

The overall MTN Business App of the Year winner or winning team will get a R200 000 trip to a tech-related destination, while the prizes for the Best Youth App award will be split – R50 000 for the first-place winner, R30 000 for the second-place winner and R20 000 for the third-place winner.

Other categories include the Best Consumer Solution; Best Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; Best Enterprise Solution; Best Incubated Solution; Most Innovative Solution; Best Health Solution; Best Gaming Solution; Best Agricultural Solution; Best Educational Solution; Best Financial Solution; Best South African App; and The People’s Choice Award.

“We are looking forward to one of our best years yet as we broaden the ICT ecosystem well beyond Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. I encourage all aspiring innovators and techies from across the country to enter and showcase their talent as we, together, expand and develop the ICT industry in a meaningful way,” concluded Magagane.

Entries close on September 29, with the awards ceremony live-streamed on October 29.