After exploring the leading tech heroes of Kenya in our emerging markets series, it seemed fitting to consider other African countries that are on their way to digital innovation with the help of some enthusiastic people in the digital field. Here is our take on Zimbabwe’s current leaders in online innovation.
1. Fungai Tichawangana
Founder and editor of ZimboJam, an online magazine that highlights many social, cultural, travel and local Zimbabwean news. The website also allows for members to upload personal blog posts that all available to view on one site. It hosts a calendar with the latest information about upcoming events of all kinds. Although more focused on lifestyle and social as opposed to digital, ZimboJam is certainly an effective way of bringing the Zimbabwe community together through technology.
Twitter: @zimbojam
2. Upenyu Makoni
Female tech junkie and new media activist, Upenyu is also the organizer of Zimbabwe’s first TEDx event, which took place for the first time this year, in August. The event follows the same form as a TED conference, usually hosted in the USA, however the TEDx event is an independently organised version of TED, licensed by TED.com. This aims to bring innovators and entrepreneurs together for a day to share ideas in Zimbabwe. The TEDx event hosted prominent speakers such as Max Soutter, a marketing and business expert who has worked with more than 300 businesses and entrepreneurs in over 30 different industries.
Twitter: @UpenyuMakoni
3. David Behr
Founder and CEO of Zimbabwe’s largest Internet service provider, Zimbabwe Online. Since releasing the initial product ZOL broadband, they now also offer ZOL dialup, ZOL Vsat and ZOL spot (WiFi).
Twitter: @davidzimbabwe
4. Garth Drummond
Garth is the founder and Managing Director of Zimbabwe’s largest web hosting company, Webdev. This company develops web applications for clients by using cutting edge programming technology, and high tech design and layout. As descibed on their website, “Webdev has rapidly risen to be a globally competitive development house with applications in the USA, UK, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, covering numerous industries.”
5. Brenda Burrell & Bev Clark
Brenda Burrell and Bev Clark are the visionaries and founders of the online project called Kubatana. The website combines IT skills with marketing and creative talents. They describe their website as one that “improves the accessibility of human rights and civic information in Zimbabwe. You can browse over 19,000 articles, reports and other documents, and use our directory to contact a variety of NGOs, civil society organisations and social justice groups.”
Twitter: @kubatana
Once again, we will keep our eyes on these initiatives as development will continue, and Zimbabwe’s technological field steadily grows with the help of these digital heroes leading the way.
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Hi
IMHO http://www.classifieds.co.zw/ Zimbabwe’s largest online classifieds, with over 30 000 registered users, http://www.sha.co.zw/ Zimbabwe’s Social Networking site (local news, local groups, Q&A …) and http://www.txt.co.zw/ an air time distribution and bulk sms service are Garth’s most innovative and successful projects.
Congrats Garth for making it on the list.
alignment of interest: I work for Webdev (I am proud to be associated with Garth and Webdev)
Personally, I don’t think ted x Harare should be there. No where near to the others.
Comment
How is ZOL the largest ISP in Zimbabwe when Econet/Ecoweb have like 10 to 100 times their subscriber base
@ Anono – We appreciate your opinion.
@Tafarell – At the time this article was written, the facts were correct and ZOL does still claim to be the leading service provider in Zimbabwe (according to their website).
@Tafarell
An Internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides access to the Internet. ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Thus ZOL is an ISP.
On the other hand Ecoweb is an Internet Access Provider (Class B License, if I am not mistaken)
Internet Access Provider Class ‘B’ Services License
The Licensee is authorised by this licence to construct, operate, develop, extend, and maintain a public Internet access network here referred to as the Internet backbone that shall comprise;
a) the national internet service;
b) the local access internet service;
d) the internet content service;
In as much as Ecoweb license allow them to become an ISP (and been one), in terms of subscriber base I think ZOL and Yo!Africa (in their individual capacities) are bigger than Ecoweb and also offer better service.
Econet is not an ISP but a mobile operator, thus you can not compare ZOL and Econet, its like comparing apples and oranges.
Comment
Good article it is nice to start getting info of the Tech gurus in Zimbabwe. I was there over the holiday and was impressed with a number of Tech Start ups coming up in Zim. One of them is connection software which I am confident will be making the list soon. I still that the industry is still heavily restricted and could could grow more. You find that role players like Econet ,Telecel and Net one are doing little to support the emergency of mobile app dev start ups. It is currently impossible to get short codes from these mobile providers for mobile marketing. Csoft has come up with some very innovative solutions to overcome this and many other huddles. I also so many e-learning start ups. Data is still very expensive at 10 cents (usd) a mb it will be a while for the industry to realise it’s true potential.
@ Ronald – Thank you for that insight. A perfect example of how we can all learn from each other.
@ Chan – We will certainly look at this market again in 2012, as potential grows and new players enter the field.
ZOL’s acquisition by Liquid Telecom will strengthen ZOL’s position as Zimbabwe’s largest ISP.
http://www.techzim.co.zw/2012/01/liquid-telecom-acquires-zimbabwean-isp-zol/
If Ecoweb was bigger than ZOL (in terms of subscriber base) I would not have seen value in Liquid acquiring ZOL. (well the biggest value for Liquid will be the brains, David & Co understand the ISP landscape better than Ecoweb).
This is not a well-researched list. It is based on the writer’s interests and not on facts.
@Larry, please give us your top 5 Zimbabwe Tech Heroes list!
@Wendy, out of interest, what criteria did you use to come up with the top 5 list.
It was a combination of the following:
1: online research
2. consulting people via social networks
3. compiling an initial list of 10
4. cutting it down to 5 with the help of a local Zimbabwean
its good when zimbos are appreciating and embracing technology, we are the generation, out of interest how many Zimbos do you think are on twitter?
@toneo1st, its very difficult to tell how many #twimbos are on twitter. We have quite a good number of active #twimbos who are based in Zimbabwe.
I agree that webdev is the largest web-hosting company in Zimbabwe. However, in terms of cutting edge web design- there’s nothing really different with what the rest of the zim industry is doing e,g. Joomla CMS development. http://www.sha.co.zw is really nothing to talk about but i applaud what webdev has done with http://www.classifieds.co.zw. That being said the list is a tad depressing Zim requires more innov8n