The growing IT skills gap, the lack of understanding of the technology landscape by policy-makers, and youth unemployment are key challenges impeding South Africa’s ICT sector.
This is according to Cinga Nyangintsimbi, MD and founder of Batsamayi Software Development, who was named the 2024 winner of the ICT sector’s coveted IT Personality of the Year Award in November.
Organised by the Institute of IT Professionals SA, the IT industry accolades recognise a respected and outstanding ICT professional who has made a significant technical or academic contribution to the industry.
Nyangintsimbi established Port Elizabeth-based Batsamayi as a third-year project group during his time as a student at Nelson Mandela University in 2013, where he later became a student assistant and consequently started lecturing final year IT students.
The company specialises in software engineering, quality assurance and cloud services. Batsamayi landed its first major international client in 2019, and moved to its current office premises in Port Elizabeth.
During an interview with ITWeb TV, 32-year-old Nyangintsimbi discussed the challenges facing SA’s ICT sector. These stumbling blocks, he points out, pose a threat to the sector’s growth and development.
“The skills gap, particularly in software development, is still quite severe. I think the overall unemployment rate is an indicator of the skills shortage in the country, because some companies hire offshore.
“The shortage of competent software engineers in South Africa has been a significant concern, with only an estimated 121 000 software engineers residing in the country, out of 26.8 million globally.
“However, recent data indicates a shift in this trend. In early 2024, hiring activity in the IT sector declined, with a notable decrease in demand for software engineers,” explained Nyangintsimbi.
“CareerJunction reported a 26% year-on-year drop in demand within the IT sector, primarily driven by the reduced need for software engineers. This decline appears to suggest the skills gap may be narrowing, as the demand for software engineers decreases.
“However, it's essential to consider that while demand has declined, the underlying shortage of skilled professionals persists, indicating a complex dynamic between supply and demand in the South African tech industry.”
Batsamayi has experienced this challenge from a slightly different perspective, in that experienced engineers tend to prefer more established businesses and well-known brands, he added.
The company has found significant value in upskilling novice engineers, mostly graduates, through company-paid certification opportunities and exposure to the production of new software, in order to help them gain valuable hands-on experience and build knowledge and skills, Nyangintsimbi pointed out.
Batsamayi has grown from six employees, to now employing 70 young professionals, with a growing number of them being Amazon Web Services certified.
“Having a majority of young people within the business and investing in tech skills has been a strategy that we’ve intentionally taken, based on survival and building the business. Part of building the skill is building the knowledge.
“Focusing on building the skill ensures we are focused on delivering our services on par with the best companies in the world. So, on an annual basis, we ensure we invest in putting our employees through certification programmes and we are constantly upskilling them. We have committed to investing annually in skills development for every person in the team.”
Today, Batsamayi has 20 clients, some of which are big global companies.
The lack of in-depth understanding of emerging technologies by government leaders remains a key challenge facing policy-making in SA, and may impact the development of regulations that will govern emerging technologies, he stated.
“For instance, when we have a solution that we present to our government leaders, we often observe their lack of deep understanding of technology, and this becomes a huge barrier to that product or solution being considered for adoption within government services.
“There's also a large gap within policy-making – my experience has been that government policies more often than not fall behind the fast-paced release of technology and innovation, and we see that being prevalent a lot more within the ICT sector in particular.”
Looking ahead, Nyangintsimbi says further growing the company, and focusing on youth employment and empowerment will remain key business focus areas.
“In a world where experience isfavoured, Batsamayi has opted to focus on building a team of talented andhard-working young people who will build their experience with us over time.
“One of our values is giving back, not only within the business, but also externally, through our CSI project. We do outreaches within our communities and offer learnerships, as well as partner with non-profits and donate to the needy on a quarterly basis.”
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