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SA can earn R244k per IT job created

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2014
If you create one IT job, it would help create 1.37 indirect jobs, says Professor Barry Dwolatzky, director and CEO of the JCSE.
If you create one IT job, it would help create 1.37 indirect jobs, says Professor Barry Dwolatzky, director and CEO of the JCSE.

South Africa's national economy can earn as much as R244 000 annually per one IT job that it creates.

That was the word from Professor Barry Dwolatzky, director and CEO of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), when addressing the IITPSA annual general meeting in Midrand last night.

"When I think about youth, I think about the challenges around them. I think the biggest challenge facing the youth of this country is unemployment. Fifty percent of South African youth are unemployed, which is the third highest in the world," said Dwolatzky.

At the same time, he said, the country has some graduates who cannot find jobs. "About 600 000 graduates are unemployed in SA. There are also 2.5 times more youth unemployed than adults in SA. Of Africa's unemployed, 60% are youth. So this can be seen as a lost generation," he lamented.

However, there are opportunities that lie in Africa's youth, as six of the fastest-growing economies are in the continent. "Because the majority of the population are youth, we are a very young continent," Dwolatzky said.

"These young people can present opportunities; and this population is our hope for the future," he pointed out.

Dwolatzky revealed that according to studies done by the JCSE, creating a single IT job can go a long way in boosting the national coffers.

"If you create one IT job - I am told that creating one job helps in creation many others - it would help create 1.37 indirect jobs," he said.

"That one IT job would, in turn, contribute R244 000 per year to the national economy. The value created to the national economy per year from the indirect jobs that results the creation of that single job is R100 000."

On the other hand, Dwolatzky noted, the cost of creating that single job is R60 000.

At JCSE last year, 150 direct jobs were created, which churned out about 206 indirect jobs. The economic benefit to the country for the year was R14.25 million, he noted.

After five years, he said, JCSE aims to create 1 250 direct jobs as well as 1 713 indirect jobs. This will have a cumulative cost of R75 million, and a cumulative economy benefit of R1 441 million.

Dwolatzky, who was the joint winner of the 2013 IT Personality of the Year Award with Microsoft's new GM for Middle East and Africa, Mteto Nyati, said he and Nyati have agreed to work on a joint project on skills development in SA.

He also discussed the vision for the Tshimologong Precinct, a new software hub in Braamfontein that will nurture the production and consumption of local ICT products and services.

According to the JCSE, private and government sponsorship - in the region of R40 million - needs to be raised to turn this vision into a reality.

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