Rapelang Rabana who was featured on the cover of Forbes Africa magazine before the age of 30, selected as a Fast Company Maverick, named Entrepreneur for the World by the World Entrepreneurship Forum and selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum 2017 – Rapelang is an internationally lauded technology entrepreneur.

 

Rapelang Rabana is the Founder and Chair of Rekindle Learning, a dynamic learning tech company that provides smart learning applications that improve learning outcomes for businesses and educational institutions. Rekindle Learning was profiled in the McKinsey Lions go Digital report as a striking innovation in mobile learning. She is also a Partner at private equity firm, Nisela Capital.

 

From her first startup, straight out of university, Yeigo, to Chief Digital Officer at one of South Africa’s largest IT companies, Rapelang Rabana has amassed over 13 years’ experience building tech.

 

Amongst other roles, Rapelang Rabana also serves as a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Entrepreneurship, as well as on the Boards of Standard Chartered Bank Botswana Education Trust and Imagine Worldwide.

 

Rapelang Rabana regularly speaks at local and international platforms and has shared a stage with the likes of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell.

 

Rapelang Rabana obtained B. Business Science (Computer Science Honours) from the University of Cape Town, giving her a technical and business background. She has since believed that there had to be better, simpler more effective ways to do things – and there is: technology.

 

 

Many of the challenges we see in Africa were solved long ago in countries with much higher gross national incomes (GNI) before the advent of digital technology.

 

Typically, they were solved using analogue solutions, and even if things weren’t perfect, they worked well enough for everyone to forget the flaws. Ironically, this has the effect of making inefficiencies less visible, and therefore provides less of an incentive for the creation of innovative digital solutions.

 

This is what gives African entrepreneurs an advantage believes Rapelang Rabana.