Uganda chooses local app for submission to Mobile Premier Awards 2014

Uganda chooses local app for submission to
Mobile Premier Awards 2014
communicationsafrica.com/mobile/kampala-chooses-local-app-f or-submission-to-mobilepremier-awards-2014

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Thursday, 16 January 2014 07:29
The new 'Ffumba' app is expected to improve the diets of people in Uganda while
promoting the country's culture as well as other cultures in Africa. (Image source: Jon
Gos)
Kampala, Uganda has selected a social networking mobile phone app based on cultural
cuisines for submission to the Global Mobile Premier World awards in early 2014
The app, selected f rom a shortlist of ten Ugandan-built apps submitted f or the AppCircus
Kampala event last week, is named Ff umba, af ter the Luganda word f or “cook”.
Developed by a group of University students as a “recess project”, Ff umba provides a f orum f or
f ood enthusiasts and amateur cooks to upload, share and develop traditional Af rican recipes and
f use them with modern styles and ingredients.
Speaking f or the group of f ive students, developer and co-Team Leader Victor Kyeswa said their
interest was piqued because every time people talked about f ood around them, it was Italian,
Mexican and all cuisines besides Af rican.
“So we started talking about a recipe-sharing app so that people could talk about our traditional,
cultural f ood, and then we kept adding to it until we came to Ff umba,” he said.

Curiously only one group member, Adviser Dominic Walusimbi, was actually interested in cooking
and had studied Food and Nutrition as a subject in high school, so together with Kenneth Otto,
he was charged with doing research amongst dif f erent tribes in Uganda to establish the dif f erent
f oods and cooking styles available.
The app, “will help Ugandans eat healthier f oods and promote our culture, as well as other
Af rican cultures. It will be used across Af rica where we expect people to contribute inf ormation
about their traditional f oods and cooking styles,” Timothy Mugabi Lubega said while presenting at
the AppCircus.
Ff umba, he explained, would be a f orum f ocused on preserving dif f erent cultures and their
cuisines f rom all over the continent, allowing users to submit f ood ingredients that the app will
use to create recommended Af rican recipes f rom among those submitted by users.
“Ff umba will automatically select f or you the healthiest combination of f ood while telling you the
f ood nutritional components, their disadvantages and advantages to your health,” Lubega
enthused.
The app will also incorporate diet planning and entertainment planning services.
“Dominic had f riends who were now working as chef s in restaurants so we got a lot of guidance
f rom them as we continued with the project. It started of f as a recess project but we took it
seriously and f ound ourselves adding more and more f eatures as time went along,” Kyeswa said.
Being selected as winners at the AppCircus Kampala was a surprising bonus. The Ff umba team
will be sent to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where they will present their app to a
global jury alongside other shortlisted apps f rom various countries worldwide.
“We are looking f orward to Barcelona. Of course we all want to go but that will depend on the
f unding we get. Luckily, the timing will not interf ere with our schooling, since the event is in
February next year,” he added.
Simon Kaheru
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