In the stead of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Marcus Garvey and what presupposes the vision of the emancipation and economic liberation of Africa, AFREE a newly launched social “App” for connecting 1,497,490,720 populace in Africa, said its set to unite Africans and compete favourably with other global application.
Living-up to the acronyms of its name, the A which stands for Assist, implies that AFREE’s main mission is to help people become more independent, free and educated. Financially, it will also be committed to improving the financial well-being of its u users.
It is also poised at rewarding those who are committed to growth, learning and self-improvement, but lack the means to do so, whilst empowering people to freely express their opinions as long as it does not conflict with the law and ethical standards. AFREE also zero in on educating its users by providing access to new knowledge, skills and careers.
Beyond socially connecting the people, AFREE will be offering assistance to people to becoming independent, free and educated, reward those that are committed to improving the financial well being, empower people to freely express their opinion, educate people through skills and course connecting people in a way that is different from what was obtainable on other social media connecting platform.
Reacting, Dr. Joshua Orabiyi, the national coordinator for AFREE Nigeria, while speaking on the quality setting apart AFREE APP from other social connecting Application, noted that the quintessential Application was borne out of the dual passion for connecting people and creating wealth
“AFREE’s initiative came to limelight from a group of friends who decided build an application that will require less Internet, that requires less power on the phone. They wanted to build an App that would require less of everything, and that App worked”
“So they taught it among themselves that they could use it as a means of services to the people living in the rural areas and of course the people living in the urban area. They later brought idea to their African colleagues and friend whom they worked together to make it an Application for Africa
Joshua said “with minimal data, it can work it can also work even in the rural areas and can also work where there is little internet connection
“AFREE like every other messaging App, that we have, it does video communication, video conferencing, direct call conferencing, it does messaging, it also have area of monetization which makes it different from any other application’”
Speaking through his representative, Mr. Oluwaseun Otayemi, the honourable commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Mobolaji Ogunlende, noted that this is a social development and majority of the “APP “ are youth. Statistically speaking in Nigeria, 57% of our population are internet users and out of the 57%, a larger percentage are youths.
According to him, the commissioner for Youth and Social Development is always happy seeing development such as this, especially when it is coming from the youth and that is why he is busy all through the days attending to issues around youth, and social development.
Otayemi noted that AFREE’s ‘’App’’ should put a lot of effort into fine-tuning the ease of use. This means that you must continue to refine the APP. One thing about the knowledge of Tech is that where your knowledge stops is where someone’s knowledge starts and it is the most competitive space and that is why many App developers commit a good deal of time into their craft. The innovators to always work on ease of use of the “APP”
Otayemi encouraged the Nigerian and African youth to buy into the vision of AFREE’s Application developer which is to connect Africa and set global reference.
“The youth should endeavor to be on the “APP” and invite friends to do the same, because the more people are on the App, the innovators will begin to identify the challenges associated in the usage of the APP, that in a way would also help in refining the ease of use . It would be difficult to refine the processes or usage of the APP if it has not been properly engaged.
He thus charge Nigerians to show massive support and commitment to development of the Application, “It is also high time we encourage young people in the tech industry, this is because the economic worth of Application such as; Facebook , WhatsAPP, Instagram and all of that is more than most of the Budget of African country.
“But now that we have somebody in our own country propagating a brand that can compete on a global scale, it is high-time we encouraged them, so they would not be begging the youth to sign up. Signing up on this App will allow the innovators of the App to spot the difficulty that you are facing. Facebook , when it started in 2009 was not as refined as what we know today and that is how we get improved products.
Meanwhile, Dr(Mrs). Alakija from the Department of Statistics and Ejiro- Oghene, lead Client Service LAGOSMIND, advise the Youth on the good and bad sides of the social media community. The duo noted that the positive aspect of the social media should be encourage, while the vices surrounding it must jettisoned and or managed
