As digital talent emerges from Gauteng’s townships, the provincial government is calling for an “information technology revolution” in those areas of the province through the building of local digital entrepreneurs.
With a focused revitalisation of township economies, the local communities were gaining a boost as more business activities were now taking place there than ever before, said Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development MEC Lebogang Maile.
This has resulted in new discoveries, technological innovations and small, medium-sized and microenterprises rapidly emerging from townships.
At The Innovator Boot Camp, held over three days at the Innovation Hub’s Soweto eKasi Lab, 30 selected participants developed, with assistance, value propositions and business models, also revealing the knowledge that can be leveraged from aspirant township entrepreneurs.
In addition, exhibitions showcased at the recent Gauteng eKasi Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Summit 2016 showed that the “solutions were there”, Maile added.
“It is amazing to see people with limited resources coming up with such brilliant innovations. It tells you that if we can invest more into these areas a lot can come out. We can discover the Bill Gates of tomorrow.”
Now, the Gauteng government will introduce and extend its work in the townships, particularly focusing on eKasi Labs and how the communities can benefit from this programme in a more practical and informative way.
This included opportunities opened up through the Tshimologong Design and Validation (DAV) centre, where the best innovation can be tested before going to market.
“The DAV centre was established to create opportunities for the growth of the province’s digital economy in support of job creation and enterprise development.
“We are certainly going to use it to test the top inventions discovered at the summit because some of these inventions can help us, as government, to work better,” Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said.
The DAV centre is currently in operation and has already started the testing of identified applications (apps), including e-Health Mobile App, and school admissions system and liquor licence process automation.