BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MBABANE– A proud moment for LiSwati!
Vusani Menzinjalo Cephas Matsebula has been nominated for the African Forty Under 40 Awards under the Telecom/Mobile and Software Development category.
The Forty Under 40 Africa Awards identify, honour, and celebrate a cross-section of the continent’s most influential and accomplished young business leaders under the age of 40 from a wide range of industries who are committed to business growth, professional excellence, and community service and have risen up the ranks of their companies or industries at a relatively young age as a result of this.
When reached for comment, Matsebula said, “I was nominated last year under hospitality for LetsgoZanzibar Travel and Tours Agency, which is a 100% black Swati company that promotes and provides affordable opportunities to go to Zanzibar Island for vacations and for music arts and cultural exchange, as we host and promote African artists from Eswatini, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania every year in Zanzibar for an event called The Full Moon Party with exhibitions, music arts, and cultural exchange from the above-mentioned countries.”
He went on to add, “This year I was nominated again under Telecom, Mobile, and Software Development for Leap Taxi Application and other software and web development work we do in Tanzania and South Africa for casinos and sports betting and online casinos with a team of talented individuals from Tanzania, India, and Eswatini, and we have since found Leap IT & General Suppliers, an IT company that practices what we call green IT solutions to enhance productivity through IT services (https://leapit.africa/).
Matsebula shared with this publication that he is an IT specialist in the casino industry, based in Tanzania. “I and my team of coders, developers, and designers are all based in different countries, some in India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Eswatini. With technology making it so much easier to work from anywhere, we build solutions to problems using our knowledge and skills, which has gotten recognition from the Forty Under 40 Awards initiative because we are more focused on providing solutions on the entire African continent, one peace at a time,” shared Matsebula.
It is worth mentioning that the awards stretch from March 25th to March 30th, 2024, at the Radisson Blue Hotel, where nominees will be taken on an experience of Kenya, showing us what Kenya tourism has to offer, with a conference and exhibitions taking place before the final awards day.
When asked how he felt about the recognition, he said, “I am grateful for the nomination, most importantly because it opens up more business gates for us, as we plan on expanding more into other African countries, as we find it very difficult to engage in business in Eswatini because most technological advancements are not well known and thus not easily accepted, making an example of the difficulties we are facing to get permits for Leap Taxi App cars, simple because the nature of business is not known by our leaders and therefore they block entertain it. As we speak, it has been almost two years we are applying for a permit without luck, and we don’t plan on giving up,” he concluded.
