Tiyani Nghonyama, Geekulcha COO and winner of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa’s 2019 IT Personality of the Year Award, has added another accomplishment to his growing list.
He has been announced as one of three new ambassadors for the French IOT service provider, Sigfox.
He told ITWeb that he’d been nominated by SqwidNet and had been working with the company on the nationwide technology competition, IOT SA University Challenge, in which Sigfox technologies were used.
SqwidNet is the licensed Sigfox operator in SA.
Last year’s global Sigfox Universities Challenge saw tertiary students make use of the service provider’s IOT solutions to try to solve some of the global challenges being addressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as quality education and access to clean, affordable energy.
“The Sigfox ambassadors' programme is a way for our company to recognise technology and thought leadership in communities across the world,” says Nicolas Lesconnec, technology adoption head at Sigfox. “The ambassadors will help us make our IOT technology more accessible and contribute to building successful projects.”
He adds that Nghonyama stood out "thanks to his numerous activities all over SA, enabling young people to leverage new technologies".
Sigfox’s network covers 70 countries globally.
“South Africa is one of the most dynamic innovation ecosystems in the Sigfox/IOT world, with a great potential for entrepreneurship,” Lesconnec says. “So, it's important for us to recognise regional leaders such as Nghonyama, who has shown the ability to build trust across communities and enable people to leverage new technologies to fulfil their potential.”
Nghonyama says Geekulcha has used Sigfox technologies throughout the national Geekulcha vacation work programme.
His ambassadorship was announced on the Sigfox blog alongside two other ambassadors: María Hernández from Colombia and Tiger Ko from Taiwan.
“Every Sigfox ambassador has direct access to key members of the company, and we make sure that we provide them with early access to new services and technologies such as our new, ultra low-cost IOT device,” says Lesconnec.
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