Tech businesswoman wins entrepreneur of the year award

What do you get when you combine passion, dedication and a dash of tech whiz?

Well, Noluvuyo Gqadu seemingly has the answer, as the formula recently scored her a prestigious award.

Held in Johannesburg, the annual TransUnion Rising Star Awards celebrate the strides made by emerging leaders across various industries.

This year’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Noluvuyo Gqadu, founder and managing director of CodeNgwana – a coding lab based in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

Speaking to The Citizen, Gqadu said winning the award was a humbling experience.

“Being celebrated is special because it doesn’t always happen in the entrepreneurial space, [where] you’re always often grinding alone,” she said.

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Preparing the next generation of coders

As the name suggests, CodeNgwana’s primary aim is to teach children how to code.

Gqadu, who comes from a tech background, said she realised there was a digital skills shortage back when she worked nine to five in corporate.

Despite SA’s high unemployment rate, she noticed that some positions always remained vacant, attributing it to a lack of skilled professionals.

“At times we would struggle to fill certain tech-related roles, and I thought to myself—we’ve got such a high unemployment rate, yet we’re struggling to fill certain roles,” Gqadu explained.

As a result, the entrepreneur felt a burning desire to do more. “If we could build a culture of kids who are taught digital skills from a young age, we could solve this problem in the future,” she said.

After teaching her own children how to code, Gqadu decided to extend her knowledge to other budding tech brains – and that’s how CodeNgwana was conceived.

The business initially started as an extra-curricular service provider for children whose parents could afford coding and computational training lessons.

Since then, CodeNgwana has blossomed into a tech lab providing coding lessons for children within the Hillbrow community – free of charge.

Gqadu said her project is aimed at breaking stereotypes and preparing children from disadvantaged backgrounds for successful careers in the digital space.

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Shared Values

TransUnion CEO Lee Naik said it was important for leaders to initiate conversations on what could be done to attract, develop and retain top talent within organisations.

He emphasised the importance of forging strong partnerships among entities with similar values.

“One of the core parts of our own business is to drive financial inclusion and to accelerate the growth of our economy… It makes perfect sense for us to partner with organisations that give rise to our potential as an economy,” Naik told The Citizen.

“The Rising Star Awards do more than just align to our shared imperatives of growing talent and driving greater diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said.

Founder of the Rising Star programme, Laura Barker, was delighted to have received many entries from leaders across various industries.

“It is encouraging to see these awards grow year-on-year – it means our goal of recognising and developing talent is real and making a difference, especially in these extraordinary times,” Barker said.

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2023 TRANSUNION RISING STAR AWARDS WINNERS

• Banking & Financial Services Rufaro Daring Mapanda, Head of Equity Trading, Absa Energy

• Environment – Mogale Modisane, Engineering & Technical Support Lead, ENGIE

• Entrepreneur – Noluvuyo Gqadu, Founder & Managing Director, CodeNgwana

• ICT (Telecoms & Technology)  – Hilton Baartman, Executive Head of Rural & Mining, Hall Core Water

• Manufacturing – Tanja Ottermann, Planning Specialist, BMW South Africa

• Media & Advertising – Cyril Zuma, Director, Color Space

• Mining & Minerals – Katlego Segoe, Technical Services Manager, Glencore Operations South Africa

• Professional Services – Thandiwe Nhlapho, Senior Associate, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

• Retail & FMCG – Tshegofatso Nnduvheni, Supply Chain Planning & Transformation, Unilever South Africa

• Service: Public & Private – Kapil Moothi, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

• Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality – Tshukudu Moepadira, Managing Director, Neo Star Car Rentals & Travel Tours

• Transport, Logistics & Security – Siyamthanda Ndlakuse, Executive Manager: Commercial & Contract Management, Gautrain Management Agency