An app that has South Africans as far afield as Australia reconnecting with their languages has swept the boards at the 2021 MTN Business App of the Year Awards, bringing its founder R 1 million and new business opportunities.
For Ambani Africa App founder, Mukundi Lambani, this means an opportunity to expand the services offered by the app, which not only earned the MTN Business App of the Year crown but also scooped the Best Gaming Solution, Best Educational and Best South African solution in the competition.
The former video editor and graphic designer’s interest in technology and apps began when she realised the importance of technology in bolstering her career and creating a future. The result has been a master’s degree in creative media leadership which concentrated on technology in the creative sector.
The Ambani Africa app, which covers six local languages and began life as a free gaming app for foundation-phase learners to learn African languages, has evolved in ways that Lambani could not have imagined.
“The original motivation was personal,” she says when discussing the early days of the app. “Like many people who have moved to cities, I found that English had led to infrequent use of Venda, my home language. Opportunities to speak my mother tongue were restricted to conversations with my grandparents, parents and limited to home visits. I found myself feeling isolated and distanced from my family and community.”
“Talking to my peers who were starting families revealed that they were worried about their children growing up speaking only English and becoming separated from their home languages and cultures. They also felt guilty as they did not have the time or resources to help their kids.”
From awareness about the problem to action, saw Lambani developing a small advertisement to test the market demand for basic language development. This led to conversations with potential users and then building processes that would attract users. “The people I work with now found me during this process. My interest then was in augmented reality. Fusing this with technology to solve the problem became our common cause.
Besides being a fun way for young South Africans to develop their language skills, it initially surprised Lambani to learn that Ambani Africa had become the ‘go-to’ app for many South Africans living abroad.
As far afield as Australia, people were using the app to keep their children in touch with their distant homeland and their mother tongues. Others who had left South Africa and grown into adulthood in foreign climes were using Ambani Africa to re-establish their connections with Africa.
“As the app and games were created with foundation-level learners in mind, we are finding that first-time language learners at universities are also using the app. Older and even retired people who have relocated and now want to interact with their new community members are regular users,” says Lambani.
The addition of an online tutoring facility, a revenue-producing opportunity, is also attracting users and opening the way for the development of the next phase of Ambani Africa, which will be funded by the winnings from the MTN Business App of the Year Awards.
A request that English be added to the list of languages available has been met, and other plans for the future are afoot. These plans include a possible move onto the world wide web, which will boost usage and reach of the concept. The addition of other African languages, including Swahili and a move to value-added subscription services that will include short, animated content, video lessons, culture and history videos are on the drawing board.
“Very soon, we will be offering both a free service comprising games and vocabulary free and a premium service,” she says.” This has been made possible by winning the MTN Business App of the Year award, which has made it possible to move forward faster than we would otherwise have been able to do so,” says Lambani.
“Ambani Africa is a deserving winner of the 2021 MTN Business App of the Year Award. It distinguished itself from other entrants by being an app that meets a social need and has the potential to grow into a business that will offer full-time employment opportunities to support its growth. Already, through its tutoring service, it is creating opportunities for skilled language practitioners to open new avenues of earning income on either a full-time or part-time basis,” says Kholo Magagane, Head of Marketing at MTN Business.
“We are particularly excited that the winner is a young woman and believe that her win will encourage others to enter a competitive, technical arena that has for years been seen to be a male preserve. We wish Ambani Africa all the best for what will undoubtedly be a great future.” concludes Magagane.
