Govt-developed apps come of little use

Lack of innovations and continuous development pushed a series of mobile applications developed by different government agencies to a complete fiasco, according to users.

The website of Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) alone features a list of 600 such apps – all aimed at providing citizens with various services, but to no avail.

The ICT officials could not confirm the exact number of apps they had developed despite repeated queries, but the number would be higher.

Different government agencies developed the apps to reduce paper works, but Bangladesh’s software industry people said those apps could not provide required services and were not user-friendly.

The apps, in turn, became a source of wasting public money, said the sector people.

Despite the fact that the apps are struggling to create an impact, the authorities concerned continue to invest in them, with some apparently keen on having the share of money spent on advertisements on foreign platforms.

Talking to The Business Post, State Minister for Information and Communications Technology Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the government planned to launch local alternative app-based services like Jogajog to provide an alternative option to Facebook, Alapan to Whatsapp, DreamStream to Netflix and Boithok to Zoom and Google Meet.

The ICT Division is also working on launching an app called ‘Sathik’ to provide a solution to Bangla grammar correction, he said.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar was among some critics of the apps developed by the ICT Division.

A firsthand user of Boithok, Jabbar termed it poorer than the initial versions of Zoom or Google Meet.

“Compared to the conventional Zoom or Google Meet, Boithok seems to be an app developed by a beginner startup. The same applies to Facebook’s alternative ‘Jogajog’ or WhatsApp’s alternative ‘Alapan,” Jabbar told The Business Post.

“I have talked to Chinese tech experts about their WeChat’s success recipe. They say their ease of using the Chinese language is inherent, and they claim that the benefits of their app never made them want to switch to Facebook or any other similar platforms. It was possible for them as they marketed it after analysing the psyche of their people,” Jabbar said.

Meanwhile, scrutinising some of these apps developed by different government and autonomous bodies with the help of the ICT Division, The Business Post found many of them outdated.

The Bangladesh Bank app that offers various bank-related services had its ‘recent events and news’ service last updated on May 19, 2015. Its other sections only contain a brief introduction of the related offices.

Its ‘Sanchaypatra’ (Savings Instruments) section only has some forms in PDF format but there is no e-form that the users can submit them without going to office.

Recently, the Department of Agricultural Marketing launched its app ‘Sadai’ for trading agricultural products to ensure a fair price for farmers. The app contains only a handful of vendors with no update or description of their products.

Sajjad Hossain’s grocery in Munshiganj Bandhu Store is listed on the app but there is no detail of his services. He told The Business Post that he had no clue of what or how to sell on the app.

Uttoradhikar is a calculator app developed by the Access to Information (A2I) to calculate the assets of a person who has passed away. It can calculate assets as per the Muslim family law but there is no mention of laws relating to other religions.

The official App of Janata Bank failed to keep its promises to offer prompt online services. Even changes in its board of directors are not updated for a long time.

Similar issues are seen on apps of other banks, such as Sonali Bank, Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank.

Apps like Background Wallpaper, Magic Tricks, BD Train Schedule, Currency Converter, Noboborsho, Asset Tracking, Traffic Fine Info, How to Play Volleyball/Basketball and Mountains of Bangladesh are claimed to be ‘innovative’ ones in the ICTD’s app directory but they do not even have the basic services.

The app of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution only has an interface to search licence number of a handful of products and it was last updated in June 2015.

Corona Tracer BD is an app to warn users if they have been near someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus. It suggested the next course of action should be to flatten the curve of the rogue pathogen. The app received little response for lack of information and updates, according to users.

ICTD also made the game -- The Age of Dengue -- to educate children about the harms of mosquitoes but it failed to attract the children.

Syed Almas Kabir, president, Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS), said: “These apps are not user friendly as they lack proper planning and need-assessment before their release. They also require publicity.”

Agreeing on their insufficiencies, NM Zeaul Alam, senior secretary of ICTD, said: “People use apps which are necessary like Surokkha and e-nothi. In a true sense, most apps are unnecessary and thus becoming unpopular.”

Zeaul, however, added that developing such apps helps the division’s in-house developers to become more skilled.

The division had taken Skill Development for Mobile Game and Application Project to develop 35 mobile apps. Of these, 20 have already been developed at a cost of Tk 11 crore.

While the rest 15 citizen service-related government apps are under development. In the next two years, more 30 apps will be developed under this project.

The senior secretary said although they have developed the apps to provide services, the backend support as well as maintenance is mostly done by private companies.

Industry insiders said various tasks in developing the apps are outsourced to private firms due mainly to nepotism and in most cases the chosen company is found incompetent to deliver the service.

Software Company Southtech Group Managing Director Syed Mamnun Quader said: “Software contains thousands of coding lines. Assigning a new company for the maintenance of an app leads the project to founder.”

About the homegrown social media and app services, Zunaid Ahamed Palak expressed his optimism that successful ventures would mitigate the loss.

“The history of Silicon Valley in the past 60-70 years shows that 90 per cent of technology-related products fail, only 10 per cent succeed. But the success of the 10 per cent recovers the amount of loss of the reaming 90 per cent,” he pointed out.

“Once there were Yahoo, Bing and other popular search engines in the world. But many of the present generations do not even know their names. Many innovative products will come in the world of technology and many of them will be lost or replaced by a new one,” he suggested.