Mobi Help wins Samsung App Developer Challenge

Samsung’s quest to unearth talents in mobile application development in Ghana came to an end last Friday, with Mobi Help adjudged the ultimate winner.

The “App Challenge” which was launched during the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Expo, saw 10 teams comprising at least two members vying for the enviable reward of having the winning app made exclusive to Samsung users. Chizom Echehieuka and Zalak Karia, the brains behind Mobi Help dazzled the judges with their simple yet life transforming app.

The Mobi Help app displays all information about the various telecommunication networks automatically, detects the network used by the customer and displays pertinent information about the network such as, data bundle options, customer center line, credit top up and balance information.

The distinguishing feature of this app is the ability to recharge just by taking a photo of the voucher number. To recharge, a person would usually have to scratch the voucher to reveal the digits and manually input the digits.

When asked the motivation behind developing this app, Chizom answered, “My mum is new in Ghana and is always worrying me about short codes for recharging, customer care helpline numbers, etc. So I thought about it and realized there are a lot of people out there with the same problem, so Zalak and I worked together to develop this app to save people with such problems”.

According to Jaspreet Singh, Director for IM at Samsung, “Samsung is committed to encouraging local content in its mobile application hence the need for this competition”. “The core of this competition is to develop an app that will be relevant to our consumers in Ghana and I am glad to say on that score, Mobi Help fulfills that need”, Jaspreet added.

Various apps by the participating teams were developed with Samsung Software Development Kit (SDK). The participating applications included Promolante, Flippy, Radio Pack, Vicinity App, Skimp, and Ghana Place Finder.

Team Mobi Help went home with $1,000 and a Galaxy Note 4 handset and ultimately, the chance of having their app available to all Samsung users in Ghana. Flippy and Promolante came second and third respectively in the App Challenge.