Niche Integrated Solutions launches TechXAfrica 2018 in Johannesburg

Niche Integrated Solutions, a South African Black woman-owned ICT emerging company launched TechXAfrica 2018 on Friday, 14 September at Monte Casino La Toscana. This was an ICT masterclass event, masterminded by women in technology driving ICT disruption in Africa.

TechX Africa is an opportunity to experience next-generation thinking and philosophy fueled by woman in Tech, transporting you into the era of Purposeful Cost and Market disruption. It brought local top ICT companies and world leaders in ICT, together with local small and emerging ICT entrepreneurs as well as women in technology to create a vehicle that allows ICT talent to be ported across Africa. The value the bigger companies bring to the SME is in their partnerships that foster technology and skills transfer through supply chain inclusion, local implementations, and local support.

TechXAfrica was created to address some of the main challenges faced by entrepreneurs:

These are amongst the top 5 challenges faced by African entrepreneurs:

Attracting customers;
Maintaining profitability;
Increasing revenue;
Uncertainty over economic conditions;
Securing financing for expansion.

Attracting customers was pointed out by events Key speaker, the CEO of Technology Innovation Agency South Africa, Barlow Manilal. He said that even though entrepreneurs are creating world-class amazing solutions, it is still a major challenge for them to market their solutions and therefore fail within their sales strategy. It is thus imperative that Niche Integrated Solutions as a South African SMS themselves try to help other SMME to gain visibility and sales traction, not only within South Africa but the rest of Africa as well, hence TechXAfrica being the catalyst to bring everyone under one roof and to be able to port a combination of talents throughout Africa.

Other opportunities that the event created was the networking of local ICT entrepreneurs with global ICT players to enable them to also market some of their innovations to these global players. Niche Integrated Solutions strongly advocates the integration of SMME into supply chain opportunities. Niche Integrated Solutions also invited funders to the event to spot the talent and to give exhibitors access to funders and financiers.

The event boasted a combination of speakers and organisations such as:

Governmental Agencies and Representatives of various African countries and other, in South Africa:

Technology Innovation Agency South Africa, Department of Science and Technology, Barlow Manilal, Chief Executive Officer

Several African and other country Ambassadors to South Africa, Trade Executives, Defence Attaches, and Representatives

Global leading ICT Speakers

Steve Apps, Huawei, Global Chief Technology Officer
Hitachi Vantara, Loay Jaber, Regional Manager, Big Data, AI and IOT, amongst other

Local South African ICT Innovators and panellist speakers

Chief Executive Officer and Founder, New Reality, Steve Pinto
Director Executive Matsei Consulting and Technology, Leon van Deventer
Executive Director, Digital expert and Tech Entrepreneur, Lubabalo Dyantyi
Edupreneur, go-to market strategy consultant, idea jockey, public speaker, Zuki Mzozoyana

Several other South African ICT and emerging Tech Innovators also got the opportunity to showcase their talents and solutions at the event and Da Vinci Institute, which runs the South African Technology Top 100 awards in South Africa, was also present.