South African government has launched its own official app store and is inviting local developers to register

DigiTech is a digital products portal of South Africa that is supported by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies. The purpose of DigiTech is to collect data about digital products developed in South Africa with an aim of supporting the products’ technology enablement and promote and expand their adoption and use. Through DigiTech, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies seeks to promote SA developed digital products in other markets whilst facilitating partnerships with other countries on co-promotion of local technologies.

The Marketplace shows some really interesting government / citizen related apps. So it is not clear if this site will merely promote suitable apps, that are then downloaded from the actual Apple, Android, and other apps stores. The Marketplace page contains no links at all to any of the actual apps being promoted. SA Government already actually has a single central portal for citizens, called eServices. I would have thought that would also have been the place for citizens, not only to transact with gov, but to also obtain this information about mobile apps to use.

So yes, an early review by Business Insider, was not glowing about this site at all. It is possibly because it is not well explained how it fits into the existing ecosystem of services and apps by government for citizens. It also has a few grammar errors, and no secure SSL certificate. The eServices site also started out with lots of fanfare a few years ago, but no-one speaks about it really in the media any more. This new site does not even link to the eServices site.

Besides that though, the initiative is a good one to promote local developers and apps that will assist citizens.

See http://www.digitech.gov.za/portfolio-marketplace

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