Eva, a first-class tech manager, shares her professional secrets

Self-discipline and integrity are the characteristics of successful leaders.

Eva Kuvise typifies these traits, making her one of the most successful managers in Tanzania’s Information, Communication and Technology field today.

She is the Country D-Tech Manager at Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL).

Eva’s career began as an IT Service desk support at Tigo Tanzania soon after she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam.

With diligence, hard work, and an insatiable desire to learn, she pivoted out of the role in less than a year.

“I was a service desk attendant for only six months. I truly did learn a lot about networks and IT processes, but I outgrew the role so quickly, so I asked to move into reports as a Business Intelligence Analyst,” she recalls.

Eva’s path to Computer Engineering and IT is a classic case of curiosity turned vocation.

She describes the most salient memory of her childhood as coming home from school one day to find her architect father on a computer at the family’s dining table, designing a building on a software called Archicad.

“I had seen him draw and design buildings on a piece of paper that was placed on our dining room table a million times before. The first time I found him on the computer, I was less curious about the drawings; I was more interested in the fact that the machine could draw them. So, it is no surprise that I went on to study the machine and not the craft,” says Eva.

Today, she is an undeniable expert in the field.

Yet, her big career break only came after obtaining her master’s degree in IT Management from the University of Coventry, when she swivelled from technical roles to more strategic IT project management roles.

Having developed an interest in mobile financial services technology from working on Tigo Pesa, she sought an opportunity to explore that interest further from the banking industry’s perspective.

Shortly afterwards, Eva took on a role as a Project Manager at the National Bank of Commerce and, later, a similar role at NCBA (formerly CBA) and managed the merger between NIC and CBA to form NCBA, which Eva says was a defining moment of her career.

“This was in 2020, and the plan was to fly a team from Kenya to come to Tanzania and lead the project. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the borders were closed, and I was the only Project Manager in the country. This was a career-defining moment for me, a huge opportunity, and the kind of project that breaks people’s careers. I was confident that I could take it on, so we proceeded, and I am glad we did because that is one of the most successful mergers I’ve ever seen. I am so proud to have been a part of that,” she says.

Eva has since joined TBL, Tanzania’s leading brewery. She has been with TL for two years now, leading IT and Tech Operations teams to streamline business processes and optimise costs while delivering value to internal and external stakeholders.

“This role has given me an even broader view of IT. It’s exactly where my career needed to go. It was a steep learning curve, but I grew from it. I went from being a tech manager to a people in tech manager,” she says. “

Eva further says; “As a project manager, I managed people, but here, I manage a team, which takes a completely different approach. I am no longer an independent contributor pushing a project forward; I am the central nervous system in an organization. I have to collaborate differently and leverage the great minds around me to push things forward.”

In reflection of her own life and career experience, Eva advises young people to embrace curiosity and not be afraid to go after their dreams.

She believes that identifying the path one needs to take is aligned with following one’s curiosity”.

Once that path is uncovered, she advises, youth need to create a network of people and activities that will direct them towards that discovery.

“Young minds have to be open to all kinds of lessons and experiences. At the same time, they must take focused actions that demonstrate their interests and passions. It is easier to get the attention of a person you want to learn from when they see how passionate you are about the matter at hand,” explains Eva.

She stresses that hard work cannot be done without discipline and integrity.

“These two are what it means to be hard-working. If you can master consistent action and be uncompromisingly honest in your work, it doesn’t matter what career you pursue; you will succeed!” Eva emphasize.