Hot tech Meet 10 Nigerian app developers

The word app is short for “application” which in this case refers to a software application or special type of software program. An app typically refers to software used on a smartphone or mobile device such as the Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or iPad. Recent trends with mobile apps around the world allow you from the […]

The word app is short for “application” which in this case refers to a software application or special type of software program. An app typically refers to software used on a smartphone or mobile device such as the Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or iPad. Recent trends with mobile apps around the world allow you from the comfort of your home access vital information which in the past could not be so easily accessible. Many young Nigerians and have moved beyond consuming these tech innovations, making their mark by creating apps that people actually use. 
Osamede Umweni, Managing Director of 70th Precinct Limited, one of Nigeria’s IT companies, in a recent interview, described the potential of the app market in an emerging economy like Nigeria as ‘massive’. Apps are getting more popular amongst Nigerians, whose contributions to technological advancement haven’t gone unnoticed. Following, are ten high-flyers.
Zubair Abubakar
He’s co-founder of Lagos-based mobile media company, Pledge51, which created an app called Nigerian Constitution. The app was released after the 2011 presidential elections in 2011 and has over 330, 000 downloads which users can download onto their mobile phones. So far it is Nigeria’s most popular download. Abubakar said: “I didn’t really know if it would be successful, but something inside kept telling me that this was something I should do, to see if I could get Nigerians more interested in knowing their rights and understand the constitution. He’s currently looking at different versions, translating it into the other Nigerian languages.
Bayo Puddicombe
He is co-founder, Pledge 51, and was an associate in the IT advisory unit of KPMG Professional Services, Nigeria where he specialised in information protection and business resilience (IPBR). Puddicombe’s strong desire to see cutting-edge innovation and tech emerge from Nigeria, brought about his creation of the mobile game app, ‘Danfo’. The initial version of the app was created in an effort to hone his software development skills and testing local demand for relevant consumer targeted mobile applications. It has also created the Ramadan app. All Pledge 51 apps have so far no less than 1 million downloads.
Oluseun David Onigbinde
He is the project leader of the BudgIT team. With a goal to redefine participatory governance in Nigeria, BudgIT is a civic start-up to present Nigerian public finances in a web platform understandable at every level of literacy and user interest. To promote open access to data and focusing on a more user-friendly presentation of state and federal budgets, the app includes charts and performance analysis for proper understanding of what budgets and public data entail. Users with even the most minimal knowledge of accounting and public financial management, find the app user-friendly because BudgIT serves as a bridge, using creative methods of visual intelligence, info-graphics, mobile (web and sms) and online interface to deliver Nigerian budgets to all.
Hugo Obi
He’s an International Business, Finance and Economics graduate from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. With a passion to share the experiences of everyday Africans with the world through games, the former financial analyst at General Electric, London, in 2012 founded Maliyo Games, a Lagos-based online start-up which focuses on creating games with an African stamp. Currently served as web browser-based games, Maliyo is made up of a variety of titles including Aboki, Mosquito Smasher, Kidnapped, Cklass Fight, Okada Ride and Football Goal. Other themes are expected to be added to these as the app is available to Africans all over the world.
Tunde Aguda
He is a Higher National Diploma holder in Department of Quantity Surveying from the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. Aguda’s motivation to develop the app, RAMP an acronym for ‘Residents Association Management Portal’ comes from his rather eccentric nature to explore new ideas that have virtually never been considered seriously here in Nigeria. Aguda says the Idea behind RAMP is simply to fill an existing vacuum in the area of online automation of resident associations in Nigeria.
Chuks Onwuneme
He is a software engineer and entrepreneur, as well as the founder of the Personify app, which he describes as “an app whose purpose is to discover the social good around you. Onwuneme’s path is a long and inspiring one. At the age of 16, he walked the streets of Lagos, Nigeria to raise funds to study computer science, later earning an engineering scholarship to the University of Texas at Arlington. After graduate school, he landed a job at Nokia in Dallas, where he worked for a couple years before the mobile phone giant decided to close down the R&D office. At this point he was given a choice to relocate to Nokia’s offices in Silicon Valley or Finland or take a buyout and leave the company. He left, and says he hasn’t looked back since. Now, in Seattle he works at Game House and continues to build Personify.
Nana Fatima Ogunfemi
She is the brain behind Techsis, where she came up with the Kinship application, while struggling with depression and difficult personal circumstances. Rather than continue to struggle in silence, she decided to take control of her own destiny and set up an app development company. She went through a pilot business course with HBV Enterprises in Hackney, where she learned how to make the most of her entrepreneurial spirit. Working with a team of developers, she has now built an app that will help thousands of others who feel isolated and lonely to stay connected to the people they care about. Kinship is a free social awareness and safety app designed to help users keep track of the people they care about. 
Dele Oluwole
He exploited Lagos’ chaotic traffic situation in good light with his creation of JonnyWaka 316. Meant to help improve road users’ experience, safe, efficient road management and reduction of road hazards, the idea was provoked by Oluwole’s traffic experiences in different countries, targeting road users in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja as well as Ghana. It’s free mobile to download, and specifically designed to help users who include road traffic officers and the police, monitor and report traffic situations, avoid incidents like traffic jams, armed robbery, and flood, among others.
Modupe Ajibola
He is the creator of the OTGPlaya platform which helps content providers to stream digital content without using the Internet as a pipeline; they are not constrained by bandwidth. The app brings digital media and online access to areas with broadband access challenge without investing in expensive last mile infrastructure. It is a customer-focused application that brings “accessibility” to critically underserved sectors. Ajibola the CEO and founder says their business model focuses on using this platform in entertainment media distribution and education content dissemination in classroom environments. Through a small device which runs at 900Mbps, content providers can convert their content into software.
Emotu Balotun
He is the creator of www.traclist.com, an online shopping platform regarded as the Nigerian version of eBay. Balotun says, the app “allows small-scale Nigerian retailers expose their stock inventories to an online shopping portal, and allows shoppers to compare the prices of those items across each retailer, and order them online. With many small businesses in Lagos lacking online presence, Balotun built a simple, central tool that lets them easily create an online shop. “It’s kind of like eBay or Amazon, but created for this environment,” he says. With help from Co-Creation Hub, Balotun was funded by the Tony Elumelu Foundation.