Nook: Bulawayo
Learner Name: Thamsanqa Sibindi
Month & Year of Story: October 2021
Probably most of us frequently use a food app to get our favourite dishes delivered at home. While in big cities, food delivery services have become something taken-for-granted, rural areas most often lack such services. This also means that local food shops and restaurants miss out on potential customers and revenue, while the customers are left craving for their favourite food or have to travel long distances to get it. 17 years old Thamsanqa from Nkulumane, Zimbabwe, saw this not only as a lack in his local community, but also as an opportunity to learn new skills and become an entrepreneur at the same time. As such, he is currently working to build Nkulumane’s first-ever mobile food delivery app.
Thansanqa’s dream is to become a professional software developer. And what better way to become one than not only learning coding and programming skills to build his app, but also develop entrepreneurship skills to make it into a profitable venture from which he can make an additional income for himself and his family? This is precisely what the teenager sets out to do at the Bulawayo Nook.
He says that he never thought there would be a place like the Nook in his local community – “a fun place where you learn by yourself rather than being taught. We all encourage each other to learn and never give up.”
That the Nook is enabling him to start a business and also come closer to his dream of becoming a software developer shows Thamsanqa that “owning a degree is not the only way to prosper and achieve your aspirations.”
