Appfrica facilitates, mentors and incubates software entrepreneurs in software in Uganda. It also gives the young guys a physical space with good network capabilities for them to work. We do not know if the name is Appfrica or AppAfrica or Appfrica Labs, but no matter what, this is a place for young guys in Uganda to spend time. They provide resources in servers, computing power and helps visionary developers get their ideas off and when the funds are needed, they play roles to make sure it happens. From their website, they explain themselves thus:
Since 2008, Appfrica Labs’s work has been rewarded with a reputation for innovative and technologically sophisticated projects in a diverse range of commercial and cultural settings. Our work is often exemplified for it’s ‘hacktivist’ nature, meaning it’s technically compelling motivated by altruism and global change. We work with a surprising range of clients on diverse projects: translation, mobile apps, facebook apps, software development, market research and reports, data analysis and visualization, infographics, graphic design and more.
Our client work and the research projects we pursue present us with a variety of design challenges from a real-time feed of questions from people deep in rural Africa, or visualizing user interaction with social networks, to backend software development. We design systems that scale both technically, and internationally. We specialize in globally aware projects, with work taking us around the world from Africa to Asia. The above map illustrates just where we’ve done work.
We think that guys must step up and replicate this type of quasi social and business ecosystem system across the continent. That way we can train more people quicker and efficiently.