Kenya To Host This Year's Vodafone Appstar Challenge

Grand prize of $12,000 awaits the overall winner of the two-phase competition

September 19, 2013… Kenya has been selected to play host to the second edition of the Vodafone Appstar Challenge. The Appstar Challenge is an international contest targeting mobile apps developers from South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and India in which the winner stands to take home the grand prize of USD 12,000. 

The competition will take place in two phases; the national phase which will run up to November 22nd and the international phase which will see the best two developers from the respective countries compete amongst themselves in Nairobi in December. 

Participants will be required to develop applications on either Android, Java/ Symbian, Windows Mobile, or IOS Operating systems. The challenges are supposed to provide solutions to existing challenges under the categories of Agriculture, Health, Education, Financial Inclusion, Games and Productivity. 

"Globally, the applications development industry has grown exponentially and we are through the Safaricom/ Vodafone innovation Challenge, giving Kenyans an opportunity to benefit from this trend by providing solutions to challenges faced in the country," said Safaricom's Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore. 

The overall winner in the international phase will win the grand prize of $12,000 while the first and second runners up will take home $6,000 and $4,000 respectively. There will also be other prizes worth of prizes of $3,000 worth of smartphones and tablets. 

The top three overall winners will take home an iPhone 5 and iPads. Winners with the best Java Application, best User Interphase, and the most Practical Application among others will take home high-end devices from Safaricom. 

This is the first time that the international phase of the competition is being held in Nairobi. The first edition of the competition was held in South Africa last year where Kenya's Gerald Kibugi and Gilbert Rono scooped the top two prizes.