Solving for the fun problems in Africa

The products we build in Africa don’t only have to solve the hard problems, they can also solve the fun problems.

There are certain places in Nairobi that I’ve only ever heard about. Sometimes while I’m on the road, I see some of these places from a distance and wonder what it could be like to visit. The funny part is that nothing really stops me from visiting a lot of these places, I’ve just never had a solid reason to visit or in other cases I’ve postponed the short trips for years.

For instance, I’ve never been at the top of the KICC building, inside the Parliament building, the Archives building at the center of the CBD etc. Besides great views, these locations would also offer a lot to learn about the history of the country, I’ve walked past them numerous times but never really thought about going inside, just to see.

On the other side of this coin, I’ve also visited a couple of locations that really blew my mind.

A short while back some friends and I stumbled upon Macmillan’s home (The Macmillan), the place was quite a beauty and we were shocked at some of the people who had spent time at that location years back, people such as the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt who had been a frequent visitor and Queen Elizabeth in her younger days.

I also came upon a small shop owned by an old man at the Kenyatta Market last year, “The Real Vinyl Guru”, the shop stocks playable vinyl records from way back when, gramophones and all sorts of equipment and machines that were used by our great grandparents, all in good working condition.

There are so many places in the Nairobi Metropolitan and its environs that when visited could offer great lessons about our history, or a simple place to chill out at, on a hot Wednesday afternoon. This doesn’t just apply to Nairobi, the same goes for most if not all cities and towns in the country. A lot of these places are free to visit or can be accessed quite cheaply.

What can improve my rate of visiting these places? a bit of competition and gamification. Stories for my grandchildren when I’m older.

So what are we talking about here?

A simple gamified app with these locations on there and a leader board.

With every successful visit I get 5 points added to my score and a badge of some sort to show off. Different locations could even have different points.

We sit around a lot these days, or spend vast amounts of time online, going on a small adventure to find a café or a huge tree in the middle of an estate in Nairobi that one has never been to on a Saturday would not be such a bad thing. You could even set out to find multiple locations in a single day.

How would with work?

The app could start by having a hundred locations that people/players have to find.

A good maps API to use for these locations would be the What3words API because the squares make it easier to find an exact location. But the Google Maps API could work just as well.

The players would have profiles that would enable them track the locations that they have visited and their scores. They would also be able to see locations not yet visited and the profiles of the other players on the leader board.

The key is to keep it very simple as a start.

The idea is also to have a varied range of locations to keep things interesting: KICC rooftop, a café in Kibera, a certain tree at the Nairobi National Park, a bus-stop in the furthest outskirt of the CBD, The National Library, a certain waterfall, Art studio, to mention a few. One has to be at that exact spot (or some meters around that spot) to be able to collect the points.

Once a week, a unique location would be announced for players to visit so they can get bonus points.

This could be a web app or mobile app or both.

How to market the app.

There are so many people on X (Twitter – aah yes Elon) and Tiktok who would enjoy such a challenge thus building a community as it starts out would be the key.

This idea would work best if you are someone who already likes visiting places to unwind or if you have been thinking of doing such a thing as a hobby but keep pushing it back.

I recently saw a Tweet by @visualsbykoech who posted photos of an Art gallery he had visited and said he had a target of visiting as many Art galleries as possible in Nairobi and sharing the experience and locations with his followers. The Tweet had quite a number of bookmarks. All of the people who engaged with that tweet are potential users of such an app.

Over time the first members of the community will spread the news and help grow the app.

How can this make money?

There are a number of ways such an app can become sustainable:

1. Partnerships with institutions in the hospitality and travel sector. Putting ups ads that are controlled by the app itself and have a direct correlation with what the app already does, and would offer value to the users of the app.

2. When the user base grows, one could charge to add a location that players have to find. Say a new café just opened up shop and is looking to promote its location, it could be added as the weekly bonus location that players would need to find as a way of bringing in potential customers to the location. You would also have to be strict as to which partner promotional locations are added so to maintain good experience on the app.

3. Merchandising – The app will be built on a community and a community is always willing to support the creators by buying cool branded merchandise. The merchandise should also be worth the buy (thinking outside the box)

4. Non-intrusive video ads such as those on Duo lingo where a player would willingly watch an ad to get certain benefits.

There are a number of ways to go about it and these are just a few of them.