How This Ghanaian Start-Up Got Bukola Saraki, a Nigerian Senator.

AFRICHAT

GHANA STARTUPS IM INSTANT MESSAGING

WhatsApp hit the 1 billion user milestone on

February 1, 2016 joining a very exclusive club of

services with a billion users and above.

With just a handful of apps serving 1/7th of the

global population, you would wonder what

chance a local developer has of creating another

messaging app that could go global. It would

appear the Instant Messaging (IM) space is

saturated, but this hasn’t stopped developers

from trying (check out the appstore and be

amazed).

Cue AfriChat, an IM app that also offers users a

secure file sharing service as well as groups with

up to 1000 members. Founded by Sopiriala

Samuel Jack, a Nigerian from Rivers State, the

AfriChat app was developed by a team of 10

people.

For network based services (like IM apps, social

networking websites and ecommerce

marketplaces), gaining momentum and

overcoming the chicken and egg problem is the

first and most critical challenge. There’s an

overwhelming amount of literature (as well as

how to articles on the web) about tackling this

challenge. The general consensus is, it’s not easy

but it’s doable. One of the tactics is, getting a

celebrity to endorse your product/service.

Well, AfriChat, may have just lucked out.

Sometime last week, the Nigerian Senate

President, Bukola Saraki, tweeted this;

"Hi! Would you like to join me on a Made in

Nigeria Messaging App? Switch to Africhat!" 

africhat.im/dl cc @Mr_Wizzo

6:48 AM - 11 Feb 2016

67 40

Bukola Saraki

@bukolasaraki

I was curious, so I tracked down the founder

and asked him how he and his team were able

to pull this off.

Turns out, there was luck involved; a lot of it. “I

will credit it to God’s Intervention and luck on

our side” Samuel says though he also believes

that the app is an amazing product that would

leave a strong impression on whoever uses it.

When asked about the stiff competition the

AfriChat app will face from the other

“ usercorns “, (apps/services with over one billion

users) Samuel isn’t phased. “Every IM has a

unique thing they are offering and so does

Africhat. We’re already slowly, acquiring users

and we’re here for the long haul.”

Samuel just completed his masters program in

Information Technology at the Open University

of Malaysia, Accra Campus. The app has been in

development since 2013, when he concluded his

undergraduate program. Since then, Samuel has

gone on to start up his own company which is

responsible for churning out a bevy of other

apps (apart from AfriChat) as well as offering

other IT related services. The company, which is

based in Ghana at the moment with another

office opening up in Nigeria soon, currently has

10 people consisting of programmers, content

creators and UX experts.

“As a first class graduate of Information

Technology, my tech/programming background

helped a lot in envisioning the final product as

well as assembling my team of like minds and

we started working.”

The AfriChat app was launched 1st November

2015, and has been downloaded about 2000

times, with a 85% active user base, according to

the founder. When asked what new features are

coming to the app in the following months,

Samuel prefers to keep his cards to his chest.

No worries. Our eyes will be on this one.