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walterlitfyafricablog · 5 years

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Why digital literacy

Part two

In part one I did not get the chance to clearly point out the advantages of why we should invest in digital literacy. In 2017 together with friends we founded a charity organisation called Mabvazuva Trust. Our mission was "To raise a generation that does not complain but is optimistic for the future". By not complaining i don't mean roll over and take it from behind i mean stop complaining for a second and see the opportunities around us. People who complain never found out the truth and they never contribute anything. The reason why we don't see the vast opportunities right in front of us sometimes. A dude from America Jeremy Johnson discovered that in Nigeria, Africa's largest country over half of young people were unemployed and he founded an organisation called Andela. This brings me to my first point:

JOB CREATION

We can create jobs in the field of computer science for those who are unemployed. Andela has a goal to produce 100 000 developers by 2024. Initially they launched in Nigeria receiving funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Andela is trying to solve the global tech talent shortage because their stats reviewed that there are five open jobs for every software developer looking for one in the U.S. alone. That means in the US they are looking for people to fill these job post and we are crying about unemployment here. The good part you don't need to go to America or struggle to get a visa etc you can work remotely. I read an article by Andela that claim that over two thirds of firms in america prefer to have remote employees. I believe we can create more jobs in the technology area if we invest in digital literacy and this is not fiction there are people already doing it. Andela has only accepted 1 200 developers out of 130 000 applications they have received. That means the other 128 800 applicants did not get the opportunity to fill this gap. I guess that's why econet launched Muzinda Hub to try to train as many developers as they can and its another article for another day about what they have done so far, whether they are succeeding and the fact that they can't close this gap alone.

HELP ENTREPRENEURS BECOME COMPETITIVE

African entrepreneurs especially my fellow zimbabweans need to understand that they can use technology to become competitive in a global world and use social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter not just to post how great they were when they went to church last Sunday but to use social media as a business tools. Some try by opening facebook pages and just post their logo or something and that's it the page is abandoned. Would one claim to be on facebook or whatsapp if they are there once a year. A few months back when i was doing research about digital literacy i bumped into a company based in South Africa called Digify Africa. Digify Africa & Facebook Africa are on a mission to "DIGIFY" businesses owned by young people through their digital PRO STARTUP which is a 12 weeks digital training course to help young entrepreneurs take their business to the next level. The programme is aimed at helping youth enterprises become competitive through digital skills, in particular understanding facebook and Instagram as business tools.

HELP ARTISTS MARKET THEMSELVES

When we founded Mabvazuva Trust it was one of our objectives to equip musicians, actors, poets, comedicians, painters, footballers etc with the digital skills they need to market their talent and expose themselves at a global stage. Having knowledge about technology enables one to use the internet to meet customers, fans, promoters and agents etc. The agent who discovered Lionel Messi by the name Josep Maria Minguella acknowledged in a interview the importance of technologies like fieldoo to discover talent. "Absolutely! Internet has totally changed the way a football agent does his/her job and the transfer industry. There are no more boundaries and limits – you can see, observe and connect with way more players (and other people) than years ago, as you’re not limited to physical presence. Not so many years ago you had to go around the world if needed, to see and meet players, while nowadays you can do it through the internet – with videos, detailed information and all you need to learn about the player you’re interested in." I remember in 2017 talking to football players trying to get them to open youtube channels so that they could upload their videos as a way to get noticed. Josep Maria Minguella also noted it was difficult to discover talent back then because the internet wasnt as developed as it is now. "Back then we hadn’t been operating through the internet on a daily basis as it had not been developed yet in all parts of the world. Because of that, I had to rely on videos I received from Rosario, where Leo Messi was playing." Now life is easy if you know how to use technology. Artists like Ann Kasiime used digital platforms to showcase their talents and it helped her grow. "According to recorded interviews that she gave in 2014, Anne began posting some of her sketch comedy skits on YouTube. She received positive feedback and that encouraged her to post more videos."

Iam happy these days when i see comedians like Comic Pastor using YouTube as a business tool to get their content to their audience and so many comedians are popping up online here in Zimbabwe. Digify Africa realised the need for equiping artist with digital skills and they have what they call OWN YOUR MARK. This programme is designed to give artists the skills they need to grow their creative hustles. The training program is designed to give artists the skills they need to make the most of the digital world and to grow their creative markets.

MAKING MONEY ONLINE

In this section im going to talk about someone i met on LinkedIn. His name is Taylor Chiyangwa a Digital Marketing and Online Entrepreneurship enthusiast.

After chatting with him online i started researching anything i could find about him and i started reading his blog. He has posted several blog posts about digital marketing. What inspired me the most was his story about how he was tired of his day job and knew that wasnt it for him until he used the exposure he had to computers and started teaching himself digital marketing. He kept his day job for a while when he was learning until he took a leap of faith quit his job and focused fulltime on his digital marketing and online entrepreneurship passion. Since then Taylor went on to open three online businesses that focus on digital marketing, content and copywriting services to businesses and forex education. He is now an entrepreneur and he has employeed a few guys in his company some working full time some as freelancers. Taylor wrote a free ebook called 25 ways to make money online. This book will show you that they are many ways one can make money online. And guess what all you need is a phone or laptop and internet to get started.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Steve Jobs: “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”. I believe i think and have a problem solver mentality because im a programmer. Programmers write programs to solve problems. I think programming doesnt teach you to thing only but it teaches you endurance, perserverance and a never give up mentality. My friend Lionel said to me that the reason my ventures havent succeeded was because i did not have a thick skin. For a second i believed him but then it dawned on me the reason why i have succeeded as a software developer was because i had a thick skin. So maybe i was only thick skinned when it comes to code but if i apply the same concept in my business ventures i will suceed. It was because of my thick skin and never give up mentality that i did the Truworths Zimbabwe in a month with drupal a CMS i had never studied before. It was because of my thick skin i developed a ussd application with technologies i did not know about like nodejs, express, angular and mongodb that when you dial *558# on your econet line you will see a seedco menu. I did that project with Tapiwa Jeka at Dataage Solutions and i remember we took turns having sleepless night to code that application and we usually slept at the office 2 nights a week until we finished that application. I remember talking to Seth Mutasa one of my students that you dont learn to code but you learn how NOT TO code. Which means you learn through the failures so a programmer should embrances errors and fix them otherwise you are toast. The worse thing for me when im programming is code that doesnt give me feedback where i did wrong that way im clueless what to do next.

I strongly believe if we had more programmers we wouldn't be whinning too much but do something using technology to change our world one community after another. I taught my brother Rann web design and it 6 weeks he made a site to aware youths in our community about the dangers of drugs they were taking

OTHERS

I did not point out every reason why we need digital literacy but i think you get the idea.i left out some other good stuff like reducing the digital divide, economic growth and reduced poverty.

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