While the ICT sector might seem daunting for most young and emerging entrepreneurs, Lethabo Mokone has tackled this bull by its horns with his thriving entity Makwa IT. Boasting a staff complement of 40 and now in its 9th year of operation, Makwa IT recently also joined the group of ICT companies to be awarded the Cisco Gold Partnership, making the company the first local black/youth-owned company to achieve this status.
With an impressive list of blue-chip and financial services clients in his book, Mokone took his early passion for technology and computers and has managed to turn it into one of Africa’s most sort after ICT firms in less than 10 years.
While his resume boasts of well-known private and public sector clients, Mokone sees himself as a catalyst for solving problems by harnessing the power of technology and strongly believes that the answer to most of the challenges faced in Africa lies in its young population.
“As a young African I am inspired by the new crop of business owners who are emerging from our continent, there definitely has been an incredible class of problem solvers who are putting our continent on the map,” says Mokone.
“My job at Makwa IT is to help come up with solutions to help drive that trajectory, whether its innovation in mobile money, fraud and security, data storage or the importing of and setting up of IT hardware and software, Makwa IT really is built on solving technological challenges to allow our clients to thrive.”
Digital transformation became an even bigger necessity the minute most businesses moved to work from home and this is where the business’s support took a leap for the stars by providing the latest technology services to ensure companies experience little to no downtime within their businesses, soon after COVID 19. Makwa IT has provided the perfect solution for many businesses to remain fully operational, despite the global shutdowns.
While the country has experienced unexpectedly high levels of unemployment especially amongst young people, Lethabo Mokone has been pushing to add more people to his team in order to do his bit to help fight the scourge of youth unemployment.
Makwa IT’s successful internship program fully employed nine of the young graduates who joined the company in the financial year, and the support from his clients has also allowed him to take in nine new interns this year.
“Youth unemployment is at an all-time high, and at Makwa IT, we are inspired by every opportunity we get because it ultimately means that we are adding more seats to the table. While business is challenging and tough, the real satisfaction comes from knowing that our company is also making inroads in helping fight the unemployment crisis in our country,” he concludes.
Further to the goal of managing the high levels of unemployment in the country, Makwa IT aims to grow its internship program to have an intake of interns exceeding our consistent numbers while also inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to create jobs and bring back a sense of pride to our people and the youth.
