Sizolwethu Maphanga
At only 18 years old, JA Eswatini alumnus Sizolwethu Maphanga became an award-winning CEO, a voice for youth in her country, and a rising force in the African technology sector.
Sizolwethu Maphanga’s participation in the JA Company Program enabled her to transform her appetite for tech into a burgeoning career. In 2018, she co-founded JA student company Nazware Innovations, which created IVOTE, an app that eliminates lines and other delays and ensures accuracy and transparency during the voting process. Under her leadership, her student company won second place at the JA Africa Company of the Year Competition, and Sizolwethu received both the Christi Maherry CEO Rising Award and the JA Africa Employability Award. The company continued to grow after the JA Company Program. In 2019, Sizolwethu shared, “We have been approached by our government, which wants to use the voting system for national elections in four years.”
She went on to participate in the African Girls Can Code Initiative’s first coding camp for girls in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A joint initiative from the African Union Commission, UN Women, and the International Telecommunications Union, the four-year program teaches girls digital literacy, coding, and personal development skills. The initiative held a contest to select a logo idea from among its students, and judges selected Sizolwethu’s design.
Not only did the logo design competition cement her place in the initiative’s history, it also meant an invitation to meet one-on-one with UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who believes the inclusion of girl and women in tech jobs is essential. Sizolwethu called meeting the Secretary-General “one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Meeting the Secretary-General, the person who is at the top of the UN, was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”
In 2020, as a featured speaker at a commemoration ceremony for International Youth Day, Sizolwethu said young people in Eswatini—a population numbering around 700,000—“simply need a listening ear, resources, and a little bit of faith.” In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic raging at the time, she addressed the challenges young people in Eswatini faced, especially the 46.55% youth unemployment rate and the prevalence of HIV among girls ages 15–19 years. “I believe the youth are fresh, vigorous, and innovative,” she said. “Their ideas, combined with the experience of the older people, can help bring about impactful economic activity in the country.”
Today, Sizolwethu continues the career in technology she began with the JA Company Program and Nazware Innovations. With aspirations to start an agriculture technology company, she seeks to transform the agriculture sector by developing software and equipment for farmers. “The goal is to make people more productive in their agricultural activities through the use of my technology products,” she said. “The services will range from security-like tracking devices for livestock, digital marketing and IT equipment production.”
We can’t wait to see what she does next!