Mobile Apps :Inside Sekalala success :Uganda's Young Software Billionaire since 2012

 With  22year old ,student  from at Makerere University’s School ofComputing and Informatics Technology (CIT) has developed at least nine internationally recognized mobile phone applications that are not only building his career as an innovator but minting millions for him. 

Sekalala got his break when Nokia, an international mobile phone company organized a special training session to help software developers hone their skills. The training in April and May in 2011 presented a major break for the young man, whose application has crossed quarter a million hits so far.  

His Big Break 

Sekalala’s most successful application is the Wordbook which has already gone commercial and is making for him a Euro per down load or Shs3,200 shs. Wordbook is a dictionary application with word of the day capability fully packed with definitions, examples and a selection of related words.

Sekalala said his current success was guided by a clear focus and paying attention and making the best of the training opportunity when it presented itself. 

“I paid attention throughout the sessions because I didn’t want to miss any information that I would [later] need. When we were asked to develop our own, I put my best and luckily my applications have been adopted by Nokia.

 The applications are available on the Nokia Ovi Store with one of them, the Uganda Theme is a free download which has attracted over 300, 000 downloads making it the third most downloaded application.

The Nokia Ovi Store, is the firm’s application store. The greatest number of the downloads was registered in the Asian countries of India and Thailand. 

His other applications 

101 Romantic SMS, WhirlSports, nLightFlashlight and Tutu translate are free but have adverts provided by an Indian-based firm Vserv. Ssekalala is paid for the different brands that advertise through his applications.

He has already achieved his one million target downloads for his mobile applications and is set to earn $1million (about Shs2.5billion) before he turns 23. 

“I make at least $100 (Shs250,000) a day from one application. I don’t have to look for a job after I finish school. In fact I make money while am seated in class learning.

Ssekalala already owns two companies; Gogetta which employs eight people and Foo Technology with seven employees. The company focuses  on mobile and website development. 

“Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to do something with computers and my biggest motivation has always been a desire to innovate and leave a mark that says I was once here,” he said. (guide2uganda).