We have just completed the first training for 2012, which has been very exciting for us. We had  trainee’s who proved to us that its not just about having ideas but hard work and perseverance can make a huge difference. Some of their apps have already been deployed and await the competition this coming July 28, 2012.

Meanwhile we are ready to begin the Kumasi training which will be held at the KNUST campus, starting 17th May 2012. The training will run for three weeks and will hopefully end on the 9th of June 2012.  We have, as always, a high caliber of trainers who are really excited about what they do. Trainees will benefit from their knowledge, experience and expertise.  We have also invited local and guest speakers to talk on various topics concerning entrepreneurship in the mobile industry. Click here to find out more about the training program.

After the training, both Accra and Kumasi trainees will compete for amazing prizes which will be given to the best three ideas. This inter-city competition is the first of its kind that we hope will unearth and reward relevant solutions to solve common problems in our country. If you are interested in taking part in this training program click here.

Just last Friday 4th May 2012,  the Mobile Web Ghana team and trainee’s visited Mobile Monday to show off a few of our mobile applications. The event began at 5:30pm; it was quite interesting with the likes of Mark Davies (CEO Esoko) and a few other people. The event was, as usual, chaired by Mrs Dorothy Gordon, Director of AITI.

The initial discussion was regarding the lack of information about mobile app competitions. Mrs. Dorothy complained that most app developers in Ghana do not know or are not well informed about current mobile app competitions and therefore cannot take part in them.  She mentioned the need for a central point of reference, where developers can stay well informed about app competitions.  There were suggestions for the creation of a website or an online group to provide such  information. Mrs. Dorothy also informed us about upcoming competitions such as the world summit awards and encouraged us to take part in them.

After the discussion, Florence Toffa – Project Coordinator of MWG was invited to introduce the various projects that were going to be presented. iKwery was the first to present. iKwery is a web-based sms application for storing and sharing digital business cards. Victoria Arkorful gave the presentation after which a few questions were thrown.

Interestingly, Mark Davies applauded the idea and thinks it is something worth investing in. The presentation was followed Justice Akligo who presented Wordy Mobile. Wordy Mobile is an SMS application to help users improve their vocabulary and communicate effectively. The last to present was Alfred Anyan. Alfred presented French A Day – an sms application for learning French.

After the presentations, everyone grabbed some snacks and munched away. There was a brief networking session. The event was over by 8pm.

My name is Arif Bin Yusuf. Since I joined Mobile Web Ghana, I have attended a couple of seminars organized by the following organization; Apps4Africa, TedXAccra and Mobile Web West Africa 2012. But the one organized by the latter which lasted for two days, from the 25th to the 27th of April was mind blowing. So far, this has been the biggest event in my life that has seen major players from all sectors of the Mobile Apps industry aggregating at one place.

Mobile apps development in Africa has taking on a new twist. In fact it now has a world of its own, moving at a speed I never thought possible. The event took place at the 5 star Oriental hotel located at Victoria Island, Lagos in Nigeria. The organization was superb. I was so happy to realize that there were people who were as much enthused about mobile apps development like I was.

Day one of the conference saw about eleven speakers address the gathering. A wide range of issues were addressed. Ranging from the “Analysis of the expansion of the sector across the key markets in Africa” to “Heralding the next stage of evolution for African music” of course through mobile apps. For me, meeting entrepreneurs like myself and sharing experiences, achievements and what lies ahead in the future was equally as important as the addresses delivered by the speakers.

Dinning with CE0s of companies I had only heard of was inspiring and definitely boosted my drive to achieve more than, I had planned to. As I spoke with these big players in the industry, one trait that I realized, was present in all of them was perseverance and focus. Conditions weren’t always smooth like they are now. Certain times it felt like giving up was the only option but, with perseverance and focus these guys have risen to be what they are now. Another thing that caught my attention was the number of mobile web applications compared to the sms applications that were presented at the conference. In my opinion more than 80% of the applications that were presented at the conference were mobile web. Thus sms based applications didn’t have much representation. The reason was so obvious; operating on a web platform gave one a wider platform to market his or her applications than the latter. With an expectation of about 735 million mobile phone users by the end of 2012. I think mobile web is the way to go.

The second day was even better. Attendees had familiarized themselves with each other. There were more exchanges of business cards, more connectivity. I loved this part the most. Indeed it was going to go a long way to help me understand the nature of business in other countries that I had not been to. In business expanding once wings is surely another good way of increasing profit. Hence, the need to look beyond Ghana. Meeting other entrepreneurs with a lot of experience in the industry who gave me insight on how to successfully launch and market my app in their country to make maximum profit as much as possible was incredible.

Mobile advertising platforms like InMobi, VServe and Twinepine all of which I came to know of at the conference actually gave me a sense of how wide I can publicize my app. Since these networks operate on a wider platform. It was funny to learn that Nigerians have almost exhausted their short codes. This gives a sense of how deep Nigerians are exploring the app world. Despite their constant struggle with power supply, they are still optimistic about the future. It amazing how most of them are now turning to Ghana to take advantage of our industry. Which to a large extent hasn’t been tapped into.

In my opinion I think it’s a wake up call for us Ghanaian’s to take the industry seriously and make good use of it as much as possible. If in such a short while they have almost exhausted usage of it 160million plus population, then the 24 million Ghanaian’s would be exhausted in a much shorter time. In my opinion, we in Ghana have a lot of opportunities to grab and make better use of before others come and grab them. The Mobile Web West Africa seminar although lasted for just two days, It impact will last forever.

I am Victoria Arkorful, as an Alumni entrepreneur of Mobile Web Ghana of the second training session which took place which took place in September 2011, I worked on an application with Eliezer Ayertey called IKWERY digital business cards . Thanks a lot Mobile web Ghana, for giving the opportunity to travel to Lagos Nigeria for the Mobile Web West Africa 2012 conference which was of great benefit to me. I realized how important it is to network, I spoke to people about my application in Ghana and they were amazed. Most of them requested that we should lunch in Nigeria because they have a culture of sending sms and they believe strongly that it will work in their environment.

On the first day of the event we arrived the venue late because of the delay at the airport in Ghana due to the bad weather conditions in Nigeria, We arrived at about mid day or half way through the event, we saw the presentation made by the CEO of Iroko Partners, the founder Jason Chukuma Njoko, spoke on the topic “Pushing the growth of usage through the creation of appealing content.” He spoke about how entertainment is giving the Nigerian consumer their first taste of the mobile internet and how they have been able attract a huge number of users to their platform which equates to more advertising revenue.

During the lunch time, I had a conversation with Micheal Ugwu, one of the Iroko Partners, about how much it costs to advertising on their platform and He said it was around about $50,000 for which they ensure real feedback from viewers. I learnt about great opportunity mobile advertising and App markets offer to entrepreneurs. I was also able to analyze the Nigerian mobile ecosystem and I realized it is enormous. About 91% of Nigerians have a mobile phone and are on the internet.

There was a mobile apps competition on the last day of the event and I realized most of the applications were similar like the music apps or entertainment etc. I networked with the Managing Director of iConcepts and was very delighted because his company does mobile aggregation and iKwery will be needing such a service in order to launch in Nigeria.

In conclusion, I want to say thank you very much for such a great opportunity to be a part of Mobile Web West Africa 2012 in Lagos Nigeria. I hope to visit more and more of such events, it was superb, well organized and an open floor to understand and share your ideas. I can never be the same after the event. Thank you.

“All passengers on board Air Nigeria to Lagos should proceed to the boarding gate. The plane is delayed due to bad weather in Nigeria. Welcome to Murtala Mohammed International airport. Thank you for choosing Air Nigeria and enjoy your stay in Lagos.” After all these messages, I was filled with excitement and couldn’t wait to get to Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island which was about 45 minutes drive. The sight of the hotel alone sent the signal to me about how rich the content of the conference would be.

After picking my identity tag, I walked gently, confidently and carefully into the conference room full of participants. The environment spoke for itself about the caliber of people present. After the first session of talks, it was time for the round table discussion and that was when I realized my confidence wasn’t to the peak. I couldn’t contribute a word. But thank God there were others to help you contribute to topics freely. This was another form of indirect mentorship. I quickly adapted to the environment. We started to discuss what local content really meant and what makes a good local content. From this I learned that, there is more to local content than using local language to serve the user. The discussion was so intense that we couldn’t even finish before time was up. The interesting part was how non-techies were contributing so well to the discussion.

Jason of IROKO Partners made me realize how users are very important in the creation of content. I have come to understand that users normally and indirectly determine the content of applications. Their experiences can make or unmake any mobile service. As much as developers seek to provide content, its quality should never be compromised. The MIXit presentation engaged my mind. I was surprised that an African mobile social network can have 50 million registered users and 12.5 million active users. At that moment I was ashamed that I never heard of MIXit. I was a lost guy in the mobile industry. Could this statistics be real? What am I doing in my own little corner? Can I also have a product like MIXit? Ask me this question now and I will tell you I have the keys to even become greater than MIXit.

Networking lunch? I hope I can network too. It was easier than I expected. Everyone was in the networking mood and all I had to say was hello and the rest followed. The first person I spoke with was the CEO of iConcept. Wow! The right kind of contact I wanted. I was so elated because I had what will make me push into the Nigerian market. This is it. Now, I became too confident and approached a whole lot of people.

Marketing and monetization was so interesting and revealing. This is an aspect that developers find difficult to overcome. I realized getting numbers to use your product is crucial in monetization. Also making your product to sell itself with less advertisement is important in generating a lot of income. When the session on entrepreneurial development across West Africa started, I took keen interested because I knew as a young entrepreneur and a start up in this competitive industry, it will be of great help. Bosun of CC Hub, Florence of Mobile Web Ghana, Jean of AllDeny from Cote D’Ivoire and Idemudia of Mobile Monday were on the panel for the discussion. They inspired me so much that I felt I was only making excuses to myself and being my own obstacle. They spoke about start ups breaking through the market. They made me understand that as a startup I also need to understand the ecosystem I operate in and failure is part of my road to success. The networking session on Thursday was another big opportunity for me. Now it’s time to go Francophone. Meeting and interacting with Jean from AllDeny put a big smile on my face. Then I realized the other side of the conference and what Florence said during the panel discussion: as a startup, you don’t necessarily need money to break-through the market but getting contacts, networking and attending conferences like this can help you pitch your idea to someone and he will help you succeed.” That was exactly what happened to me. At that point I felt like I have over stayed my presence. I have hit a jackpot. One that people will take years to get.

Branding? What has branding got to do with my mobile app? Yes, branding is not just for organizations but products should be brands on their own. Seeing the Guinness VIP app and Eskimi gave me a second thought about application branding. They spoke about making applications more engaging, monetizing it and having a growth model for it. Ayo of Eskimi said “branding is creating emotional connection between your users and product”. Take note.

When it was time for the open mic session, there was nobody from Ghana (the gateway to West Africa). Although I was proud of the young Nigerians presenting their ideas, I was also disappointed that no one from my beloved country was on the podium. This struck me to try hard to develop all the wonderful ideas I gathered and wrote down during the conference and make sure I also make wave like the Eskimis, InMobi, MIXit, Rancard and all the others so that I can always showcase my skills and country at the next Mobile Web West African conference.

I felt so reluctant to leave just as my other colleagues. MWWA 2012 has opened another chapter in my life and I pray this heightened spirit to succeed with the right knowledge gained will never die.

With joy I left Oriental Hotel seeing myself at greater heights but with sad heart I left Murtala Mohammed International Airport (read paragraph 1 again and see the irony). My experience at that spectacular airport of the 1970s wasn’t anything of joy at all (see me in chambers for more details). But, as the mayor of Accra said at TedX Accra; every challenge is an opportunity, I met a renowned ace journalist in Ghana at the airport and I have learnt that time management goes beyond being on time. See you at the next Mobile Web West Africa. Stay developing apps.

By Fafa Akligo