Binyam Dele
Binyam Dele is a passionate geospatial advocate and technology leader from Ethiopia. He serves as the Community Leader of OpenStreetMap Ethiopia, where he actively promotes open mapping for development, crisis response, and community empowerment. As an Alumni YouthMappers Regional Ambassador, Ben has mentored student chapters and led impactful mapping campaigns across East Africa.
He is also the founder of AmbaLay Maps, a homegrown African mapping service that provides localized geocoding, routing, and navigation APIs tailored to the region’s needs. Through his work, Ben is committed to building open, inclusive, and resilient digital infrastructure that connects people and drives sustainable progress across the continent.
Session
Africa's digital transformation demands localized, affordable and sustainable geospatial services. AmbaLay Maps is a homegrown African mapping service provider that builds on OpenStreetMap data to power APIs and geospatial tools tailored to the continent’s unique needs. This presentation will showcase how AmbaLay Maps bridges the gap between open mapping communities and commercial users, from logistics and delivery platforms to urban planners and humanitarian responders.
We will demonstrate our routing, geocoding, and tile services—all built using PostGIS, Node.js, and Docker, and optimized for low-bandwidth and offline environments. We will share case studies of how AmbaLay Maps APIs have supported projects in digital addressing, public transport, and crisis response in Ethiopia, especially in underserved regions where global services are less effective.
This talk aims to inspire African developers, OSM contributors, and decision-makers to think beyond just mapping and build a full-fledged open geospatial infrastructure that is owned and shaped by Africans, for Africans. We’ll also share our open roadmap and current challenges and invite collaborators across Africa to co-develop and deploy local mapping platforms that reflect our languages, landmarks, and lived experiences.
Learning Outcomes:
- Discover how OpenStreetMap data can power African-led geospatial platforms
- Understand the technical and strategic steps to build local map APIs and services.
- Explore models for integrating community mapping with scalable tech infrastructure.
- Learn how localized mapping supports sustainable development, logistics, and emergency services.