Gabon's number-one tourism platform, five years later.

Context

Where to eat tonight in Libreville? Where to sleep in Port-Gentil? Where to go out this weekend? Before Mbolo Gabon, no platform answered these questions for Gabon — the information lived scattered between word of mouth and Facebook pages.

Mbolo Gabon centralises tourism and entertainment in Gabon around three themes — eat, sleep, have fun: over 1,300 bars, hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues listed and geolocated, giving visibility to businesses and full autonomy to visitors.

My role

Flutter mobile development, working in pair with Frank Tchatseu (now my VALIDE co-founder) — geolocation algorithms and multi-provider authentication — integrated with a backend supplied by a partner company.

What was delivered

• geolocation of all venues — the algorithms that place 1,300+ locations on the map and guide the user to them;
• multi-provider authentication: Google, Facebook and Apple Sign-In — the full trio, including the demanding Sign in with Apple required by the App Store;
• theme-based navigation: eat, sleep, have fun — the information architecture that makes 1,300 venues explorable;
• third-party API integration: consuming the partner’s backend — with the interface-contract discipline that requires;
• publishing on both stores.

Structural decisions

Developing against a backend you don’t control

The backend belonged to a partner company: no way to modify a poorly designed API, we had to work with the formats, timelines and evolution of an external team. This configuration — frequent in enterprise, rare in freelance — teaches interface-contract discipline and cross-team communication.

Geolocation as the heart of the experience

A directory app without reliable geolocation is a phonebook. Working on the venue-location algorithms — precision, map performance with hundreds of points, guidance — is what turns the database into an experience.

The triple social authentication

Google, Facebook and Apple Sign-In in a single app: three SDKs, three OAuth flows, three error-handling paths — plus Apple’s requirement to display Sign in with Apple whenever any social login exists.

Results

• 1,300+ venues listed;
• 10,000+ downloads on Google Play;
• app still in production and updated in 2026, five years after the initial development.

Longevity as proof of quality: an app still active, maintained and downloaded five years after its initial delivery is the best possible validation of the foundations laid at the time.

What this project proves

• Flutter in integration mode: consuming third-party APIs from an external backend;
• advanced geolocation: location algorithms, mapping with volume;
• full social authentication: Google, Facebook, Apple Sign-In;
• cross-team and cross-company collaboration: mobile with us, backend with the partner;
• lasting quality: an app in production 5 years after delivery.