By Kellys Kaunda
IMISEPELA APP – DIGITALIZING ACCESS TO ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
Today, something groundbreaking in the digital space is expected – the launch of Imisepela App.
Launched on the Youth Day, the App is intended for young people to access a variety of economic opportunities such as jobs and funding for their projects.
On one App, like under one roof of a supermarket, the youth could scroll for that much-needed job or loan for a project.
Currently, these opportunities are scattered in a lot of places – different websites , social media pages and different traditional media.
For some of the opportunities, someone must physically get to the service center itself or government ministry.
With the App, all one needs is bundles to facilitate access to the internet.
The App comes at the right time. For many years now, Zambia has been investing in facilitating access to the internet.
The previous government invested significantly in the construction of communication towers which in turn allowed service providers such as MTN and Airtel to roll out their audio and data services.
Add to this the creators of digital products such as computer-based applications addressing a variety of services.
The Imisepela App is the latest in a series of innovative ideas addressing a variety of development challenges.
Young people who often lack financial means to physically move from point A to B can now simply scroll down their handsets.
However, with any new innovation, there’re challenges and teething problems.
These will be pointed out in a variety of ways including criticism of one kind or the other.
It’s also important not to inflate the expectations of young people. For instance, the mere launch of the App doesn’t mean all the answers to their problems have been found.
The App doesn’t create economic opportunities, it only makes available what is there.
It’s government that creates policies that facilitate private sector ability to produce goods and services.
Policy and actual production are not products of computer apps but human ingenuity.
As long as the economy doesn’t produce enough opportunities, the App will satisfy but only a few.
However, depending on how the App has been designed in terms of access to data, most of the opportunities that went to a select few and sometimes to undeserving individuals may now be accessed by many others and hopefully offered on merit.
In any case, there have been opportunities that many other young people simply didn’t know about because of the inadequate nature of the means by which they were communicated.
The Imisepela App addresses this inadequacy. Now the ball has landed in the young people’s courts.
Start scrolling and share your experience.