20/05/2022
SOUTH AFRICA’S GOVERNMENT-OWNED APP STORE
The South African government has launched its app store, DigiTech, to showcase homegrown applications. The purpose is to encourage public and governmental adoption of South African-developed applications.
The launch of the store coincided with World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Several apps highlighted on the launch of the store perfectly reflected this year’s theme which emphasises how technology can assist people to remain fit—”Digital technologies for older individuals and healthy aging”.
What kind of apps are in the store?
Currently, it offers apps such as Senso, a sound assistance app for deaf people; Boxfusion, an automated administrative tool; and Cattle Watch, an application that visualises geo-location of livestock to farmers. There are 24 other applications in the app store.
There are already plans for expansion
The founding department of DigiTech, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), is already thinking big. Reportedly, it will announce the platform’s expansion into Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and other countries across sub-Saharan Africa in September 2022.
Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, calling for support of the local products on the platform, said, “What is not created in Africa cannot be consumed by the African market.”
While that is contradicted by Africa’s consumption of foreign tech products ranging from entertainment to finance, crypto, e-commerce, and more, he does make a good point.
Homegrown tech solutions can uniquely address our needs in the African context and add more socioeconomic value to the continent.
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