Esther Oluku
A new mobile application and pan-African social network, AFREE, has launched its operation in Nigeria with a media parley and conference.
Making the announcement in Lagos, Country Director and Head, AFREE Nigeria, Dr. Joshua Arabiyi, explained that the app was designed specifically to cater for the needs of people within the African continent.
Built with a capacity to function with very minimal data consumption and an ability to work with very low power supply, Arabiyi noted that the AFREE app is a game changer for the continent, cutting through these barriers to connect users within African communities and cities.
This app also offers opportunities for monetisation through a system of aggregation of social media engagements on posts.
Explaining its user penetration across Africa, Arabiyi noted that Nigeria is the second country on the continent to receive the AFREE train.
He said; "The AFREE initiative came to limelight when a group of friends decided to build something that would require less of internet and less power. They thought within themselves that we could use this as a means of service to people who actually required it. That is people in the rural areas and of course people in the urban areas.
"So far, AFREE has been launched in two countries, Cameroon and Nigeria, and it's already preparing to launch in other countries of the African continent. It is time that we have our own local brands that would be for us, places where we can work, servers that should be for us. Our data that should be kept with us."
On her part, Senior Lecturer at Yaba College of Technology and member of the AFREE Nigeria Team, Dr. Alakija, noted that the acronym AFREE encapsulating the brand's long term objective to Assist, Finance, Reward Empower and Educate.
She said: "AFREE was created to unite everyone in Africa on one platform, freeing them from total censorship and giving them a voice. We are also helping to improve lives, business development and learning, ultimately promoting unity, equality and prosperity on the continent."
Promoters of the brand disclosed that within the next few years, the brand will open it's offline stores in Nigeria to sell it's own mobile phones and tablets that are specifically designed to work perfectly with the app and are "reasonably priced".
