IT whizz kid aims high after funding
Chakalisa Dube | Monday March 17, 2014 14:49
The 25-year old wizkid last week received a P82,000 grant from the Department of Youth here to boost his fledging business.
Majaga’s business, Francistown College of Programming, was registered last year early May but due to funding it struggled to take off. The business has been situated at the old Botswana Railways buildings near Trident Wholesalers since late last year but Majaga is due to relocate to a new and spacious office near Thata Save.
The business offers services such as Software Development, Information Management Systems, Integrated Document Management Systems and Electronic Records Management System.
“In simple terms our services will include developing software customised to suit various local organisations’ needs once we are fully operational. These softwares will include those that will be assisting organisations document and manage their data in electronic form for ease of use.
We will also be offering website development to various organisations,” he said.
Majaga, who said he will invest the windfall in marketing and procuring of more equipment, disclosed that the business will be fully operational once the money has been credited into his business account in the coming days. He has a letter showing that his fund application has been approved by the department.
Majaga is a holder of an Associate Degree of Business Information Systems at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Botswana.
Since last May after registering his business, Majaga said that his focus has been on marketing the business and sourcing funding. He maintains that in order to begin operating he had to educate Batswana about his business first.
“It was very vital that while I was still sourcing funding I had to educate people about my business. Batswana are generally not accustomed to various dimensions of IT that is why I also wanted to educate them.
“I even attended the BOCCIM trade fair last year even when the business was not operational to create awareness about my business,” he says. But the question is why did Majaga establish that kind of business?
“The world is increasingly becoming digital and everything is computerised. I believe that the country’s IT market is still fairly open.
Again I realised that most local organisations depend mostly on foreign softwares to manage their operations, which at times give them trouble because most of the computer softwares are not tailor-made for the local market. My products will be tailor made for the local market,” he said.
Majaga is in the process of bringing a partner in his business called Bruce Kojane. The 45-year old Kojane who confirmed the partnership, is a former Principal Records Manager at the Francistown Archives and Records Centre.
“I consider him to be my mentor. I worked with him during my six months internship nearly two years ago before he resigned,” he says.