Decent jobs created in the digital age

Digital technology evolution has recorded significant strides in Tanzania for it continues to create many careers in different ways.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Whatssapp, Instagram and blogs have attracted businesses and created job opportunities through leveraging the growing online influence.

Even though in some instances technology has led to the loss of jobs where companies opt to use robots or easier online means to carryout different tasks, the influence of online technology has nonetheless led to a rise in different careers.

Benny Nyato, 37, owner of Benny Group of Companies, has in recent years made significant headways in his business.

The online market store deals with supply of beauty products ‘Benny beauty supply’, online marketing distribution and is now the supplier of a champagne brand, Eldehiss – a beverage distributed in Tanzania and other countries in Africa.

Benny, a Tanzanian staying in United States, says he started Benny Beauty Supply online business in 2014, noting that at that time he was working as a store front and doing overtime work.

His online beauty supply business deals in hair extensions, wigs and weaves, hair oil and treatments, hair relaxers, hair accessories, skin care products and kid’s beauty supplies.

“We also receive orders offline and supply exclusively to distributors of maxxelle, which is made in Italy to all 50 states in the US,” he says.

“My company has expanded all over the world and it provides employment to different people globally,” he adds, also stating that, through this business he has created job opportunities to the youth in Tanzania while at the same time delivering their products to big , medium and small salons.

Benny saw an opportunity in online supply of beauty products and decided to invest, he thus encourages the youth and other people who want to create careers, including opening shops and salons, to do so because profitability on investment is good.

He only had a dream of leveraging on the influence of online shopping, and now he is able to ship his products to different parts of the world.

Talking about challenges, the online business expert says there are always other competitors and the market changes every time.

On dealing with online fraud, he says cybercrime is a big challenge everywhere, noting that his company is aware of the vice and has been doing everything in its capacity to address the challenge.

Today, many things require online solutions to be resolves, it’s an avenue that Grayson Julius, 29, and his two friends saw, and hence started their own company known as ICT Problem Fixers (IPF), that deals in digital solutions. They started the company in 2013 when they were pursuing their bachelor’s degree at the University of Dodoma.

Grayson and Nelson Malekela, 28, were pursuing a degree in Engineering, while Jackson Twalipo, 29, the 3rd member, studied Software Engineering.

“Our company started with three people as Co-founders, currently we have 14 employees, including trainees focused on developing digital solutions that drive human behavior and engage customers. We also deal with website design, development and strategies, mobile solutions and digital marketing, with the aim of helping businesses in Africa stand out in the digital world,” says Nelson.

Grayson says since college days, him and his peers had a vision of becoming inspirational figures in the digital industry in Africa basing on the quality of work and self-evident values.

“From 2013 we worked and studied together and put in a lot of effort in our studies until 2014 where we graduated with flying colours,” he says.

In 2015 their company started to grow and up to now they have 10 employees and four individuals working as trainees.

“At the agency we have adapted the human centered design approach and it is a thing we live through in all stages in any project we do, the process is broken into three simple steps. Understanding the problem is keys,” Grayson says.

Talking about their mode of operation, Grayson says; “Our hands are joined with our customers, we open doors to simple and usable digital solutions. Then, we visualise. All insights are churned to ensure that partially digested problems are broken down into fine-grain absorbable units,” further adding, “ We use these units to sketch a walking skeleton of the proposed digital solution. On the last stage, we quickly ship a working product, a platform for our client’s feedback but also a platform to help us deliver.”

Meanwhile, Robert Kiata, 35, works as a digital video photographer employed and working at Integrated Investment limited, a company that deals with video digital production such as workshops, wedding ceremonies, billboard advertisement, filming documentaries and more.

Robert works with different sectors, including the government where he helps prepare education documentaries. He has also worked with the ministry of tourism, in efforts to advertise Tanzania to the rest of the world.

He uses documentaries, live stream, Face book live, video mixer to make society get information on different topics.

It is through the influence of digital age that Robert has managed to succeed in his line of work. He does admit, however, that digital technology is expensive.

“One seminar with live stream costs Sh7 to 9 million but mostly the expenses are spent on equipment,” he says.

According to Edwin Bruno, a software engineer and founder of tech company Smart Codes, Tanzania has a growing number of youth with brilliant innovative ideas that need to be nurtured in order to be feasible. “These great ideas need to be propelled by connecting the innovators with the corporate world,” he says.

Victor Mnyawami, 29, and his friend Moses Kabungo completed their engineering course in 2016 and established an online Television station called Tango TV where people can download an application and enjoy movies online.

“We are a media streaming service that provides our members with access to content, including but not limited to access to motion pictures, television and other audio-visual entertainment content delivered over the Internet, to Internet enabled devices,” Victor explains.

Victor, who is a graduate from University of Dar es Salaam and has worked in technology for eight years, says Tango Television is the new way society should watch movies and Tv shows via internet. Through the mobile app users can download and enjoy movies straight on their tablets and mobile phones. It is available on Google play.

Victor says Tango Box enables people to watch hundreds of Swahili movies, music videos, and have unlimited access to millions of videos on YouTube.

Speaking about how it all started, Victor says two co-founders started the mobile app, and they’ve now employed 15 people and the service has gone global.

“The mobile application is available and anyone with a smart phone can download and start enjoying local movies,” he says.

A lecturer from Moshi Co-operate University, Dr John Lwata, says growth of digital technology creates many job opportunities to the youth and those engaged in small and medium-sized entrepreneurship.

He believes that if the youth make proper use of social media, they can benefit financially through initiating different online business ventures.

With the employment field becoming lesser conducive for fresh graduates, capitalizing on technology by engaging in online activities that yield profits might be a viable solution to the high rate of unemployment facing our youth today.