'Tanzania has many opportunities for youth’
11th July 2013
Luca Neghesti
QUESTION: Briefly tell us about yourself.
ANSWER: I am a serial entrepreneur with vast experience in the Media, ICT and Logistics industries in Tanzania. I am currently working with Jefag Logistics as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). I managed to see an opportunity in the media industry and in 2006, I founded Bongo5 Media Group, the first digital media outfit in Tanzania targeting youth development through entertainment and social media engagement.
Later in 2008, I joined Jefag Logistics as Chief Executive Officer in the logistics industry with a single container yard of 20 employees and successfully led the group in steady growth to eventually operate three container yards with a total combined workforce of more than 200 employees.
As the youngest member of the Dar es Salaam port improvement committee, I have been instrumental in the port tariff harmonization of 2009 as well as actively involved in strategic policy making for the betterment of the Dar es Salaam port.
Q: How can youth tap into existing opportunities?
A: I see that Tanzania has so many opportunities which can be tapped by youth to sustain their lives. ICT has many opportunities to create jobs and develop entrepreneurship skills. We have observed some of the youth engaging in providing services such as electronic financial services (M-PESA, Tigo PESA, Airtel Money and Zap), selling SIM cards, selling mobile phones, DVDs, Flash disks and other ICT gadgets. There are other youth who are skilled in ICT who develop software and programmes which support service provision. I encourage youth to find such opportunities and utilise them.
Q: How has your ICT and social media platforms helped others?
A: As I said earlier, I have done a lot. I have a passion in supporting social initiatives targeting to improve people’s lives. You know, I was raised by a disabled single-mother, who did all to support my education. This has groomed me to be very passionate about women empowerment, capacity building, bringing about sustainable change and finding innovative solutions to pressing social issues.
In December 2009, I spearheaded a relief aid campaign for thousands of victims of the Dar es Salaam floods through the use of social media platforms that saw funds being raised for the victims as well as provisions being donated and distributed to reach all those who were affected.
Furthermore, youth can selflessly devote themselves in a variety of technologies like what I am doing on KINU Innovation Hub, which positively impacts a community of hundreds of people, ranging from high school students to grand-mothers through innovative education on the use of ICT tools.
This is a social enterprise with the mission of concentrating, growing and accelerating the Tanzanian tech and social landscape. It is an open space for Tanzania’s tech community to foster a culture of co-creation, spark innovation and augment capacity building.
The KINU Hub is the collaborative space needed to enable the community to participate into the co-creation process and make a joint effort to generate new solutions to social challenges.
This tech offers refreshments, high-speed internet access, data storage and backup, knowledge centre, showcases (Exhibition space), industry meet-ups and events, innovation competitions, hot-desks, ICT workshops, testing environments, webinars, translation centre and application testing.
However, as the CEO of Jefag Logistics I gathered groups of unemployed youth around the port area and assisted them in forming a union providing value-added services to various companies in the area. Through the Bongo5 Media Group, I established a youth-run company that dedicates itself to empowering youth through information.
Q: What is Jefag Logistics and how does it operate?
A: Jefag Logistics started operating the smallest inland container depot licensed in 2008 with a capacity of 500 Teus, and under my leadership as CEO grew the group to becoming a leading logistics stakeholder, in just less than five years. Jefag Logistics has contracts with global shipping lines as well as acting as an extension of the port of Dar es Salaam. It operates two import container yards with a combined capacity of 4000 Teus handling 15 percent of Dar es salaam Port’s annual throughput, as well as an empty container depot capable of storing 2000 teus, together with a fleet of 70 trucks and growing.
Q: Finally what is your call?
A: The Tanzanian tech scene needs to be brought together to form a community; develop a culture of co-creation and innovation which will become the catalyst for growth and capacity building. We need youth who can demonstrate exceptional commitment to serving and bettering society. Youth who can actively participate in tech innovations and who can donate their time mentoring fellow youth by sharing their experience, advice and thoughts to bridge the inter-generational gap.
link http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=56850
