Zimbabwean wins Young Visionaries Fellowship Award

Young Visionaries Fellowship Award is an initiative by the Indian Government to identify top young entrepreneurs and achievers from India and Africa and offer them opportunities for growth and collaboration.

Rinos Mautsa awarded with the Indiafrica Young Visionaries Fellowship Award

Mautsa - who is currently the secretary-general of the Call Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) - becomes the first Zimbabwean to receive the internationally-recognised award.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Dr Sam Kundishora acknowledged the efforts and recognition: "Zimbabwe has a high literacy rate and is strategically located in terms of time zones from Beijing in the East to New York - USA in the West. Because of this unique natural and geographic advantage, the Ministry has followed Mautsa's progress with interest from the time we identified the Call Centre business as an critical ICT subsector with potential to create employment and contribute to the national economic activities through outsourcing and value added services," said Kundishora.

Zimbabwe has potential

"Mautsa's expansion into other countries in the region is testimony that Zimbabwe has potential to become an ICT services hub in the region and beyond."

The Indian Government chose to award Mautsa for the establishment of his company, Africcs (Pvt) Ltd, which sets up calls centres and is currently involved in a number of ICT and call centre projects in Zimbabwe and in the region. The award also acknowledged his involvement in the formation of the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe.

Commenting on receiving the award Mautsa said: "Receiving an award from India government which is the leading global call centre destination and tech hub was a priceless moment for me. It revived my dreams of seeing Zimbabwe as a global call centre destination.

"This award is a great challenge for me to work even harder to develop the Zimbabwean call centre industry, to tap into the opportunities created by the growing use of mobile and internet in the country," he said.

Mautsa is presently working with various stakeholders in Government and NGOs to establish a National Agricultural Call Centre. He is also part of the technical committee team comprised of experts from various countries which is working to establish the Pan-African Contact Centre Centre Association for the continent.

Understanding challenges and opportunities

The Young Visionaries Fellowship seeks to encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas and a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the two geographies. Partners include Ministry of External Affairs, IdeaWorks, Indian Angel Network and Villgro Innovations.

The winners were selected from a pool of over 10,000 young achievers across Africa who have made remarkable difference in their countries and also those with projects that have a potential to turnaround local and global economies.