University placements were released yesterday. For the hundreds of thousands of students completing their high school education and hoping to move onto higher education, it is a momentous day. For the first time in Ethiopia, with system developed and implemented by Apposit, students can receive their results and placements via SMS. Simply by providing their student id to a toll free short code (8181) in Ethiopia, students receive their grades and the name of the university to which they have been assigned.

This service improves the distribution of this information immensely. Where previously the only means of getting this information was by travelling far distances to ask in person or on an online portal to which many students don't have access due to the lack of internet connectivity, a simple SMS from anywhere in the country now delivers the information students have been waiting for expectantly for months.

Apposit developed this solution for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The solution encompasses the first set of government to citizen services delivered via SMS and includes other services such as electricity bill information and foreign exchange rate information.