On my way to Kigali, I had to transfer in Addis Ababa. I wanted to use the chance to visit our local partners AddisMap who had launched the AddisMap Transit app in 2021 and have been improving it since then.
They even won a project with DigitalTransport4Africa (DT4A) in 2023 and got a budget for teaching bus operators, mapping more data, and for improving the app even more.
This was a very successful project and they hope that they can continue this in two other cities as well. The civil war in Northern Ethiopia is sad reality, and is of course slowing down many efforts, In spite of that, Ethiopia is a booming country and local project manager Alazar Tekle sees many opportunities for growth and also to make public transportation better.
I didn’t manage to leave the airport, because there wasn’t enough time, but at least I had the chance for a longer call with Alazar and get updated first-hand from him. Even if we didn’t meet in person, being in the same city already made a difference.
The story of AddisMap as our local partner is very typical for Trufi, because it is a local software start-up that sees a chance to improve their city and to earn money at the same time using Trufi’s technology. Before deciding to use Trufi open source code, they had been collecting a lot of points of interest in Addis Ababa and created map solutions.
Furthermore, they do web development projects, often in correlation with maps and data. With the mobility app you can give users accurate information on public transport while promoting local businesses and doing marketing. Plus all the benefits for urban planning, of course.
So releasing AddisMap transit (formally known as YeneGuzo app) brought personal passion, company skills and business strategy together.
We are happy to have local partners like AddisMap, because as a non-profit organization we want local people, companies and communities to scale out and enrich our core solution successfully into the local markets. It needs both, a strong international Trufi Association plus its local partners like AddisMap. Thanks for being on the way with us!
That was day 2 on my travels and I’ll head now to Kigali, capital of Rwanda.