Being a Developer in Tanzania: Challenges and Opportunities
I heard many stories regarding where the developers come from here in Tanzania. I also heard some stories from legends in the industry; who shared some of their stories with me on how things used to be back then. I still laugh today when I look back at my college days regarding the perception we had when it came to programming courses. I will give you some of the success stories, inspirations and opportunities of what it is about to be a developer in Tanzania today.
I am dedicating this article to my fellow developers joined the #ALCwithForLoop Workshop and to the rest of the developers in the country and world at large. Special thanks to ForLoop Tanzania, Seed Space and Andela (through ALC Program)for giving us developers an opportunity to fulfil our dreams of being Software Developers.
Back Then…
I must admit I was super lucky to have met amazing developers from the past, those who worked with punch cards technology and COBOL Programming languages. It was inspirational and yet amusing hearing how they used to compile their projects. At their university level, there was one particular mainframe computer that they used to compile all the students’ projects, after compilation they would then leave the program to run and they would return the following day to pick up the compiled results. “Sometimes you miss the semicolons so you go back, fix it and compile again”, the developers told me.
Tools were not that much enhanced and advanced compared to today’s tools, yet they managed to make an impact on the organizations we are seeing today, quite impressive! There were neither Google nor Stack Overflow but yet they had a passion for pushing to the greater change and believing things will work out at some point. The programming languages they used back then had many limitations but it is through such hitches that we are making modifications today.
These stories are inspirational and give us the strength to work even harder, considering the fact that nowadays tools are more advanced compared to the past used tools. The materials and contents are all over the internet, it is just for you and me to decide what we want to learn, how we want to learn and when. Programming Languages are becoming more expressive than ever before, there is no need for a semicolon (like in Kotlin) and the good thing is, there are frameworks that help us to work faster in solving problems.
My Experience
Like many developers and Computer Scientists, I joined college to pursue my first degree in Computer Science with no knowledge of computer. I did not have a computer to work and I had never worked with one but I joined with the perspective that, it is a new field that is taking shape in our community and I was curious and of course willing to learn, thanks to my sister who suggested this for me. Along the way, I encountered a number of challenges that shaped who I am today.
Challenges
College experience
I remember soon after I joined the College, I used to be afraid of Programming Courses. But then again this comes from the stories that we heard from the senior students who actually either feared programming or perhaps did not do so well or failed the subject. The first opinion that we normally every student has is passing exams and believing that failing means you do not know anything or you will not get a job. Even lecturers made us believe that the course is hard and only geeks would pass through, and seeing about three-quarter of the class got SUPPLIMENTARIES was even scarier for most of us.
I didn’t have a great pass mark in the first Course of Programming (Pascal). But I found the passion for programming through that course which I failed. I felt so good knowing that I can tell something about a computer and it can give me the answer/feedback. Then I realized that I need to know the language that a computer speaks/understands in order for me to communicate with it. I loved that idea and I later figured out that there is a vast amount of languages that I can use to communicate with the computer.
Programming Platforms
By then, tools were started to getting shape; I used some basic tools like Notepad++ and Code block. In addition, Google was already in place not to mention YouTube where I watched online tutorials. There was a selection of multiple programming websites that did online training like Lynda.com, all these platforms contributed a lot to the secret of my success in programming i.e. learning new skills every day has helped me build my career and definitely my passion in programming.
Internet Accessibility
The internet was expensive in those days; I bought my first modem early in 2009. I remember data bundles were not even possible to purchase by then. It was so expensive to run a modem to watch videos on YouTube or an online website training/tutorials. The option was going to the internet café and pay 500TZS for half an hour or 1000TZS for an hour and try to learn as quickly as possible meanwhile hiding the downloads that you do (the cafés did not allow downloads back then!). At the café; we were only allowed to read some articles, open emails and probably opening a social media account since it was the “in thing” in those years.
The college internet was so slow; I could barely do anything productive without wasting hours and hours in waiting! The only trick I had to do was to befriend someone at the internet café so that I could learn and download some tutorials to watch later in my room. It is through this mission that I was able to understand what is going on in the programming world and was able to later pass well my programming courses in the following semesters.
Mentorship
Developers in Tanzania are facing many emotional challenges and lack of mentorship from the very beginning. You can blame the University education that it never prepares students well enough for the real world out there. From my understanding and experience, I figured without dedication and passion you cannot achieve being a good software developer. It requires time, focus and believing that things will work out at the end of the day. Now, companies started to find people with interests in been developers and not interested in university certificates. People from other fields are studying programming language at their own free time to be able to program things that they believe in and be masters at programming.
Majority of developers during meetings tends to have egoism, and when approached we behave in an uncooperative manner. As a nation, I believe we should come together and try to solve challenges facing our community leveraging technology and not to stand out and disagree with one another that my solution or approach is better than that of others.
There are a couple of conferences and meetings regarding the advancement of technology going on in Tanzania, but the attendance is not promising. Many people are impressed with getting started to work as software developers on the very first day but they disappear in the following days. The majority want to learn fast and get an immediate result, I mean come on, even Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Ecosystem/The market
There is a massive transformation of ways that we usually do things in programming and this has made many people come up with new ideas on how we can transform to digital or innovate new ideas. However, these new ideas barely have no support for further development into applications, be it morally, socially or financially. This makes it difficult for developers to sustain the development and the being a “software developer” amusement idea falls off the wagon. Nevertheless, eventually, someone might come with ideas and would want a developer to implement them then propose a partnership with the developer and eventually the product will become operational.
There is also an assumption that things are now easier compared to the past and this has led to customers to hire developers working for them quoting a very low amount of money as payment because of this notion. Moreover, as junior developers have less to no experience and constantly looking for some project to prove their competence, they end up accepting these projects, which in turn bite them in the end.
Opportunities
Recently, in Tanzania, there are so many opportunities to take advantage as a developer. Starting from the employment opportunities etc. In recent years, we have witnessed a greater number of employment opportunities compared to the past, be it from the government, private sectors, innovation ecosystem, you name it!!
The government has employed a number of developers in recent years compared to any other time in history (based on my observation). I believe this is a step towards transforming manual processes to more computerized processes in Tanzania.
A number of hubs have been opened in less than a decade, a vivid step that demonstrates that programming is being appreciated and valued by the mass audience. Back then, we had only the Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH) — Innovation Space now named BUNI. But now you can get help from a number of hubs in developing your innovation and start being a tech entrepreneur. I have seen many startup companies coming from these hubs and grow to become successful and sustainable (Smart Codes and Max Malipo). Check out the BUNI Hub, SeedSpace, Sahara Ventures, Kiota Hub, Ndoto Hub and Smart Labs just to mention a few.
A number of conferences are taking place Tanzania in the area of technology and mostly explore the progress of technology in Tanzania and how we are taking advantage of it. A conference like Sahara Sparks and ICT Professional Annual Conference are some of the conferences that you can use to showcase your expertise. Even though I have met some people who keep ideas as secret, honestly I am not sure if this is the way to go or not. What I am saying is sharing ideas with like-minded people will help you unveil some of the important things you overlooked.
There a couple of workshop going on, just keep your eyes open. Currently, I joined #ALCwithForLoop (Andela and ForLoop Tanzania — happening at Seedspace) workshop to help my fellow developers and newcomers in Software Development. It is 6 weeks intensive, hands-on workshop on full stack web development using React.js and Node.js. You can be part of this Workshop and Bootcamps to share ideas and make a connection with like-minded people.
My Message
We should definitely ask ourselves the passion we have and the vision we want to achieve from the personal level and eventually to the country level. Do not be driven by some theory and myth that this field has more employment chances as compared to that and that. and this does not. Humbly follow your passion and belief to what you can do better and love what you’re doing, it’s that simple!
