Gary Griffiths, CEO of Trapit, a virtual personal assistant for
Web content, observes that, “Since the birth of Silicon Valley and IBM’s System
360 nearly a half-century ago, the narrative in the technology sector has been
a bare-knuckled brawl of younger, smarter, and more aggressive competitors
grabbing market share from the once nimble behemoths who subsequently allowed
creeping sloth and bureaucracy to overshadow the technology and business chops
that put them on top in the first place.”
Griffiths analysis of a scenario where, “Money is shifting
exclusively to the new, young scrappy technology startups in the
enterprisemarket,” is replicated right here in Botswana and while the local
plot is not necessarily of the David toppling Goliath mould, Thatayaone
Dichaba’s Ditec Mobile narrative bears testimony to the local script of young
tech savvy entrepreneurs who are taking the country to the next level of economic
development. Dichaba is a trailblazer who was quick to notice the emerging
trends in the mobile phone industry and moved in quickly to occupy a niche in
the embryonic mobile phone ecosystem. His story of hard work, dedication and
perseverance makes an interesting and inspiring read.
Thatayaone Dichaba
Born in Tamasane, he was enrolled for elementary and primary
school in Palapye but later relocated to Selibe Phikwe where he completed his
primary education at Tebogo Primary School. He proceeded with his junior
secondary education at Meepong and went on to complete his senior high
schooling at Selibe Phikwe Senior Secondary School. Dichaba later pursued a Mechanical
Engineering Technician course at the Polytechnic followed by Computer
Science at the University of Botswana.
Upon
completion of his studies, Dichaba joined job seeking brigade and landed a job
in a friends company where he sold his labour as a web developer for two years.
In all this time, the innate entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and
tendency to imagine new solutions and finding opportunities for profit or
reward had remained latent until sometime in 2003 when the lure of
self-employment and chance to make money compelled him to resign from his day
job. At this point of his life, Dichaba had married his wife Kutlwano Dichaba and the charm of unlimited possibilities if one is
successful in business and the security of having a trustworthy and caring
partner to share the load compelled him to take the financial risk as an
entrepreneurial couple. “Going into business with my wife as co-owner and
co-manager of the commercial enterprise has its emotional and financial rewards
and strengthens each other’s commitment to and enjoyment of both the business
and personal sides of the partnership,” he says.
Dichaba
had earlier in 1998 registered a sole proprietor business and used it to apply
for a youth grant. He was given P20 000 with which he bought two advertising
billboards. Unfortunately business did not take off as this was a relatively
new concept then and had not yet caught the business community’s imagination as
a powerful marketing platform. He therefore decided to retrace his steps back
to IT where he did networking, general support and web design. The IT business
yielded much better results and as the business grew it allowed the couple to
incorporate an Adverting subsidiary that deals mostly with branding tools to
join the IT subsidiary that does networking and support in the Dichaba Group of
companies.
It
was during this time that Dichaba developed a habit of dismantling old and
broken down mobile phones and putting them back together again. Soon he
immersed himself passionately in his new found hobby, investing time and money
heavily into the project before he realized the drain it had coursed to his finances.
“I love gadgets, I love mobile phones and I continued to assemble phones late
into the night at home, unaware of the huge financial hole I was burrowing into
my savings and even blowing my Credit Card to finance the hobby. Soon I was
taking bank loans to support the hobby and before long I was falling into
arrears and ended up in deep trouble with the banks. It was only then that I
realized that this was serious and it’s amazing how my financial woes also made
me realize my hobby’s business potential,” he says.
Despite
his financial predicament, the 2005 chance discovery of the hobby’s business
potential coupled with his proficiency in the use of technology, his knowledge of emerging
industry trends and desire to grow his business portfolio, prompted Dichaba to
knock on the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency’s (CEDA) office for
help. Although the funds were ultimately released after an elaborate and
compelling business proposal, the timing was terribly wrong as he was in very
bad shape financially with Deputy Sheriffs and debt collectors frequently
knocking on his door in pursuit of his mounting debts and at times threatening
to attach the businesses assets, but the entrepreneurial couple persevered and
against all odds they ultimately honoured their debts and went on
to establish Ditec Mobile within the Dichaba Group.
Ditec Mobile is
a 100% citizen owned mobile phones design company. “Through research and
observation, we realized that, there was a huge gap between feature phones (low
end handsets) and smartphones,” he says. He explains that price had locked out
the low end segment of the market from accessing the technological advancements
in the mobile phones such as WAP (internet).”Pioneer I was developed to close
this gap,” he says, “It was a good handset that ran on a very good platform, it
had WAP, MMS (Picture Messaging) and other functionalities available in most
high end mobile phones. The only challenge was that it had battery problems but
we have since upgraded it to Pioneer III, which is very stable.”
Ditec Mobile’s
formative years were touch and go with the business barely
keeping afloat but thanks to hard work, dedication and perseverance, today the
company has grown to be one of the leading experts in the design,
development and customization of mobile devices. Representing the latest in
Mobile Technology, Ditec Mobile offers a full range of exceptional mobiles each
with something unique and outstanding catering to a variety of needs and
preferences. The company’s innovative designs and high end specifications
combined with portability and affordable prices are ideal for mid-range
customers. The company’s custom made smartphone's run on mobile operating
system and are manufactured under one of the largest ISO Registered designer
house in Asia, with over 10 years’ experience in handsets and Telecommunication
gadget manufacturing and a workforce of approximately 3000 stuff, over 50% of
which are qualified Engineers.
Dichaba believe
that any technology no matter how good becomes irrelevant if it doesn't solve
or address existing problems. “Our handsets are different from existing
handsets in that they are highly specked handsets targeting specific segment in
the mobile market. They are also competitively priced so that those who could
not afford features previously found only in high end handsets can now enjoy
them.” He emphasizes that their handsets also have an opportunity for value
adds such as the opportunity for software developers to come up with relevant
applications tailor made for the local environment.
Asked about the
common refrain that Botswana’s limited market constrains local commercial
enterprise, Dicahba explains that, “Botswana has one of the highest mobile
penetration rate in Africa at over 90%, when you look at the average mobile
penetration rate of African countries which stands at 65% you see a massive
opportunity of a market that there, ready to be served. So our target market is
low end segment of Africa. Our products are mostly export oriented. At the present
moment we are working on preparations for the launch of our products in other
markets, we have partnered with local companies in various countries as
distributors and most of the advertising cost of the products will be borne by
them.”
On who their competitors
are, he mentions well established companies in the likes of Huawei, ZTE,
Samsang, and Nokia. He goes on to say, “Mobile business is not only technology
driven but is also very capital intensive, you cannot develop a technology and
be on the lead without your competitors catching up with you. We are always
improving our products, as I mentioned earlier, we have improved Pioneer I and
the upgraded Pioneer III includes Bluetooth, calendar, WAP, and longer battery
life.”
He said their
biggest obstacle was doubt. “We meet with a lot of resistance from people who
do not believe that a fellow African can also produce a handset. We have
managed to work at this over time and we are beginning to notice a thawing of
the frosty reception we’ve been getting as we have signed major contracts,” he
says. He mentions financing as another
major challenge. “As I said earlier on, this is a very highly capital intensive
project and it has been quite a challenge to convince our financiers that we
are the right people to partner with,” He says. He mentions that they got the
finance to produce the first prototype from CEDA and was grateful they are
still working with them.
He said
technology was a fast evolving phenomenon and that one always has their finger
on the pulse if they are not to be left behind. “We are thankful that we
haven’t really been affected by the current economic meltdown and that research
actually shows that mobile penetration rate in Africa will average 85% by 2015.
People continue to use mobile phones regardless of the current prevailing
economic conditions,” He states.
Dichaba says,
while they are currently only designing the phones, they plan to ultimately move
into manufacturing and hopes BIH will facilitate the next phase of
the development of Ditec Mobile. “I think working with BIH, well help us
position our company well for export, as production of goods and services that
meet global standards is part of their mandate and being a member of the hub
comes with benefits such tax exemption or reduction. This will help us cut our
costs and avail funds for the critical research and development of our
products,” he says.
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