This is a guest post from a Zimbabwean app developer, Keith Baira.
When I was much younger, I remember the greatest lesson I learnt was to be wary of con-men and fraudsters. It came from the mortifying tale of the emperor who paid a fortune to walk stark naked in the streets. The two important lessons were that:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
- Chances are, nobody is going to tell you when you’re being conned.
This may be the unfortunate situation multiple startups have found themselves in. Having laboured for months to develop an application only to see it wither in the harsh, unyielding desert that is the Zimbabwean app market, I got some first hand experience in this.
Let’s be frank with one another. Our application development and e-commerce space doesn’t look like it will be shooting to the sky anytime soon. This is in spite of there being multiple hubs and an increase in software development organisations.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t individuals making money off app development though. They’re just not making that money from the market. So if we have developers and some support structure of sorts, what is the problem?
I am an OGRE (Organic Growth from Revenue and Expansion) kind of person. I prefer to watch companies grow slowly but surely, not like they’re powered by a nitro engine. It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate overnight success, but I know that not every startup is a “WhatsApp”.
What worries me though is a growing trend to start incubation hubs to kick start the country’s app revolution. A sizable amount of money has gone into trying to get developers to create startups that will be overnight successes.
There’s no FastJet to app success. It’s a grueling, measly road to the top. It doesn’t matter if you have a corporate sized budget as the developers of a certain mobile money app will tell you, or you are the relatively unknown next big thing. Hard work, aggressive marketing and sales, and consistent iteration are what you need to solve an ACTUAL need.
Let’s start by solving actual needs, and channeling all these resources to more important causes (which I applaud some hubs for doing) like skills development, the space to develop creativity and most importantly solving problems.
I hope this realisation comes soon. Eventually all the local developers and sponsors of these projects (which to date haven’t yielded a single app success) should realise that they were creating the Emperor’s new app all this time.
image credit: wisegeek
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27 comments
Haha, reminds of the child’s remark near the end: But he is not wearing anything and everyone joins in, he is not wearing anything.
Thank you for enlighting on this. I have seen a lot of passionate about getting reach being hidden behind desire to develop new applications or learning something new.
We have a dev project to running for 2 years. Its simple, its sponsored at around $900 000 and part of deal is to produce a app or software which we would not in our normal work budget, something like this:
https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/technologystrategyboard/events
We are almost 9 months into the project, its not fun. We have been moving up down left right sometimes btwn mongodb then couchdb them back to mongodb.
Our aim is to make an semi automated workflows for how the company track its assets.
We also want to harness hadoop for data analytics which is in SEGY format.
I see you are in an environment were requirements change fast
Its very challenging environment, just last week out of blue one of our client started producing single 12terabytes files and they expect us to host them and deliver them to their multiclient customers.
Now, we just realised EMC Onefs file system have a 4TB single file limit. How do we then handle this? Its meeting after meeting after meeting because they are saying its in the contract, we have to meet SLA.
Great article, but too much focus on app development. Hubs are not just focusing on app development, in fact some are encouraging hardware development. I understand, you are an app developer and would rather write about what you definitely know about and have experienced, but there is too much focus on app development. Let’s explore hardware and enterprise software shall we.
The education system is designed to create an efficient work force. So when one graduates from computer school, they first thing they want is a job. It is okay to look for a job, but the problem begins when our bright minds feel content just what they are doing. Let’s spread our wings and let’s explore our creative abilities.
100% behind you. Our education system is about 40yrs behind the modern world. Its results focused and very theoritical.
Its not relevant to anything current let alone future. We are producing a lot of graduate programmers who are already behind by years before they even start anything.
The gvt even is behind, companies which are suppose to create demand are being led by board members who got their jobs through backdoors or nepotism.
Look at Steward bank, give it another 5yrs and all the cry of monopoly will be loud because they might catch up with cbz or overtake it. Check who is leading their restructuring to meet modern world.
Personally, I think the education system is fairly good. I don’t think you can expect a university grad to come out knowing the latest technology trends. At most universities should teach 2 programming languages, one object oriented(preferably Java or C++ but C# is also ok) and one procedural(preferably C) and of course Assembly. A person who has a fair grasps of these languages will learn new languages easily. It must never be expected that a university grad comes out a super coder, no, the role of universities is to teach people how to think. Anytime, I will hire a NUST or UZ grad because of the high Math content in their degrees. The problem is some universities are teaching students VB.NET. This is a very dangerous trend, not to say VB is outdated, but once a person starts with VB, they can never go Object Oriented
Dont hire the university, hire an individual! Zvekuda kuti akadzidzepi hazvishandi!
For trivial programming roles or web development, it doesn’t matter. But if you want someone to train to be a world class developer, there are only 2 places to look for graduates. The tech scene is fairly small in Zimbabwe, just check where the few good developers went to uni
Munonyepa vakuru
I guess you went to the Sex University
i don’t expect a varsity graduate to instantly become a programming guru, not at all. But after some experience I’d be very happy if they become adventurous and try new things.
at the catholic university they teach VB .net, C++, C, Java and the web languages and their exams are some of the most challenging in the country but students from the school never really go into programming they venture into business and enterprise information architecture.
Students from nust and Uz are usually hyped because of the brand they represent and such branding is very dangerous. Don’t focus on the brand but the actuall individual
Noooo I beg to differ, it’s the mindset of the student that is just very backward.
Students just chose to absorb info and not bother to put it to use that’s all.
Also the resources available do not permit us to learn the Japanese way where students can build robots and all kinds of insane stuff. But still with the available info, people can still chose to be practical. Why are Zimbos famous for finding ways of surviving when the going gets tough?
on spot, however the syndrome is not overnight success or lack of insight on the part of the developer per se as the article seem to over stress. Zim environment is bursting with opportunities for developers to showcase their talent but the biggest drawback are opportunist “developers” in the name of “entrepreneurs” who eavesdrop on someone’s idea and rush to bake the cake without any idea and the result is obvious….. a still birth. Borrowed ideas are not easy to promote, let alone sustain.
this is true indeed but in my opinion…..zimbabwes problem with regards to apps and software products does not lie within the products themselves but rather the market..the ICT penetration level we have in Zimbabwe should be considered wen one develops an app or program that is meant to generate revenue from the public…with high costs of data in this country and slow and low ICT penetration levels…its going to be a minute until developers make some good change from their products….i would root for an approach where developers put the same or more effort actually in marketing their product like they do in developing the apps….and marketing for a zim type of environment will require not only electronic marketing through online platforms only but traditional marketing methods…..get the people to know about your product and that way…..the traffic to iStore or Google Play etc in search of ur app will increase
I wouldn’t say it’s a sole Zim problem but an African problem in general…we jump on the tech hub bandwagon and completely phase out the major reason why we make apps i.e users either businesses or general public consumers. A lot of apps out there making these so called conference talks won’t even gather a 1000 users yet the makers keep investing time in useless things like start-up conferences instead of spending time on the actual product because most of these apps are crappy. Any part of the world people let their products do the talking
How many new zimbabwean web based companies are running at the moment.of all the competitions & hackathons how many startups showcased at these events are still operating. many computer science graduates churned every year but very few with finished products. the only visible startups that are grinding out is mazwi, rlmns & a few others. its better than nothing but we need to do more.
I like this article because it brings to attention the real world environment for local developers. The talent is there but the market is still very very immature. A huge percentage of Zimbabweans are not connected to the internet (not whatsapp). With the most popular apps, their “overnight” success depended on its virality and the size of the market. There are very few local apps that target the right market (market size) and create a shareable experience.
can anyone name 5 zimbabwean technology startups with finished products that are on the market.
what i see is ideas floating around but nothing to show for it. whatsapp is proof that if u create a solution that solves a problem the people will come.
Ya, you are right. There isn’t much of a tech scene to speak about. I think part of the problem is Zimbabweans generally overrate themselves when it comes to coding skills. Try hiring a developer and you will get CVs that promise heaven and earth and when it comes to interview time, you will notice very few will know anything at all. I think we are still growing and some might disagree, you need the exposure of formal employment before you can start on your own. As long as formal employment is scarce, then most of these start ups will be mediocre.
Well written accurate article! We should focus on developing skills (math, science and programming) and applying them to real world actual problems, not just cloning some apps that are looking for a problem to solve.
i don’t expect a varsity graduate to instantly become a programming guru, not at all. But after some experience I’d be very happy if they become adventurous and try new things.
Programming on its own is inadequate. maCD Chip has highlighted a project where Project Management skills are scarce, absent or inadequate or where there is “creeping” functionality. Once you are led by Solution Architects who have solid PM implementation experience most of the issues raised here can easily be solved. The sw development arena is a huge domain and as many might be aware, less than 3% of sw projects undertaken actually are deployed on time, within budget and meeting the user requirements and are usable.
Stop thinking about making a million dollars and start thinking about serving a million people. This is the real road to success.
truth is there are very few developers and the absence of developing groups futher slows us down. it is very had to code alone but with poverty levels so high it is even harder to commit individuals to a project with no immediate money outcome. i am looking for like minde people evrywhere i look i see problems and problems spell opportunity so if you want us to form a team ping me, lets grow the nation