Luvuyo Rani

Luvuyo Rani is a South African-based visionary and award winning social entrepreneur.[1] He is the co-founder and managing director of Silulo Ulutho Technologies,[2] an internet café turned one-stop-shop IT franchise company with 36 branches in Eastern Cape and Eastern Cape provinces, South Africa.[3] In 2016, Luvuyo Rani Luvuyo was named the 2016 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Kigali, Rwanda.[4] He was among 12 other social entrepreneurs to be honoured by the award. For his extraordinary work providing access to technology, Luvuyo Rani was named a 2014 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (JCI TOYP) recipient in the category of business, economic, and/or entrepreneurial accomplishment.[5]

In 2014, Rani was nominated for an award at the Junior Chamber International in Germany, ten years after he started Silulo Ulutho Technologies from his car boot.[1]

Early life

Luvuyo Rani was born in 1974, amid the political turmoil in South Africa. He grew up with his brother Lonwabo Rani in Queenstown, a township in the Eastern Cape with very little exposure to IT. He worked multiple jobs throughout high school and in his late teen moved to Khayelitsha—a township with a population of 1.5 million just outside of Cape Town—to attend the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. During college, on top of working to pay tuition, they both had to travel over an hour into Cape Town to complete assignments or check their email. Luvuyo was confronted with this problem again years later, when Luvuyo, who was teaching accounting, economics, and entrepreneurship in a high school Khayelitsha: the South African government introduced new curriculum standards that required high schools to teach computer skills. Luvuyo took out a loan, bought refurbished computers from a supplier in Cape Town, and started selling them to his fellow teachers. He recruited Lonwabo and they brought on a third partner with technical experience to handle repairs and maintenance.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Global recognition for Khayelitsha entrepreneur". Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  2. ↑ "Silulo Ulutho Technologies". Silulo Ulutho Technologies. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  3. ↑ "'There is money in townships': South African grows IT business to 36 stores - How We Made It In Africa". 2015-10-23. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  4. ↑ "Rani wins in Africa". Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  5. ↑ "JCI". www.jci.cc. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  6. ↑ "Luvuyo Rani - Endeavor". Retrieved 2016-07-25.


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