This article is adapted from here:
Mr Alex Nyika is an Ugandan software developer based in Kenya. He was the guy that won the Base of the Pyramid award at the 2010 Mobile Monday Peer Awards that took place in Helsinki, Finland. Five finalists including United States-based Super Technologies, which emerged runner up in the category competed for the award.
The award recognises young and outstanding mobile companies that are making a difference in mobile health, education, payments, employment trade and entertainment. Software developers from 37 countries across the world participated in the awards.
Mr Nyika, 26, was recognised for developing iCheki, a mobile phone software solution designed to help users of public transport in Kenya to track taxis coming their way. iCheki is a Swahili-English (Sheng) word for “I see”.
Mr Nyika holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Makerere University and a Diploma in Business Information Technology from Strathmore University. Commenting on the win, Mr Emmanuel Kweyu, a former lecturer of Alex at Strathmore said the win is a reflection of the spirit of East African community – a Ugandan winning a global award while representing Kenya.
Mr Nyika won the Strathmore Boot Camp competition last November with an application called ‘Pamoja’ (Swahili for together) which is an event management system. The application was used to manage applicants in subsequent boot camp in July 2010.
My Nyika led Xrystalgenius, the mobile programming start up he heads to win the 10th MIT-AITI mobile development competition held at Strathmore University on 30th July.