The 2025 FNB App of the Year Award has been awarded to Vula Medical, a medical referral app developed by Dr William Mapham.
Mapham had the idea for the app while working at the Vula Emehlo Eye Clinic in rural Swaziland where he experienced, first-hand, the difficulties faced by rural health workers when they needed specialist advice.
The secure app connects primary healthcare workers with specialists, making it easier to manage patient referrals and get specialist advice.
It is designed to improve healthcare in rural and underserved areas by allowing health workers to share patient information, including text and images, through custom referral forms. It facilitates communication and remote guidance and greatly reduces unnecessary travel for patients to ensure that they receive the right care at the right time.
Health workers who use the platform have published studies demonstrating its value, with key findings showing that, in nearly 30% of cases, patients seen at rural clinics do not need to travel to a specialist. Instead, they receive specialist input directly through Vula, a game-changing outcome that saves patients from long, costly and often stressful journeys.
To date, the platform facilitated more than 2,5-million patient referrals, connecting healthcare professionals across over 2 300 public and private facilities. It also supports 105 different categories of health workers, reflecting its wide reach and ability to streamline communication and care coordination across South Africa’s health system.
The FNB App of the Year Awards was held last night, showcasing innovation across the continent, with leading developers, industry experts, partners, media and sponsors celebrating the creativity and homegrown talent shaping Africa’s digital future.
Now in its 14th year, the App of the Year Awards spotlight solutions that transform industries, improve lives, and enable economic inclusion, across multiple categories including consumer, enterprise, health, education, agriculture, financial and more.
To date, the App of the Year platform has unearthed some of South Africa’s biggest digital success stories, including Eskom Se Push, Naked Insurance, Pineapple Insurance, Checkers Sixty60 and last year’s FNB App of the Year Winner, Matric Live.
“The FNB App of the Year Awards continue to nurture and unearth African innovation and technology, uncovering some of our best-known apps and bringing together different sectors of society to solve a variety of social, economic, and business needs. Winners rapidly gain recognition and the opportunity to attract funding,” says Janis Robson, business development head at FNB.
“By supporting developers and start-ups, we are driving innovation, creating jobs, and contributing to the country’s economic growth.”
The full list of 2025 FNB App of the Year category winners is:
- Best Consumer Solution: Mr D
- Best Enterprise Solution: Droppa
- Best Hackathon Solution: Usagey
- Best Gaming Solution: Recess
- Best Health Solution: Vula Medical
- Best Agricultural Solution: FarmWise
- Best Educational Solution: d6 School Communicator
- Breakthrough Developer of the Year: CPF Method
- Best Financial Solution: Stokvel Marketplace Powered by StokFella
- Most Innovative Solution: iER (Integrated Emergency Response)
- Best South African Solution: iER (Integrated Emergency Response)
- The Accenture Reinvention Award: Scenda