iZambia was the first in a series of portals containing up to the minute information about entertainment, property, jobs, accommodation and news specifically relevant to people across Zambia. On the new iZambia you can find:

• Top local, internation, sport and entertainment news
• LIfestyle: Fashion, Food, Gadgets, Gossip, Health, Movies, Music, Relationships, Travel and TV
• What’s on section
• Jobs: Manage your CV online, apply online, setup job alerts
• Property to buy and to rent
• Resturant guide
• Accomodation guide with online bookings
• Business directory
• Games
• Music and videos
• Social platform where you can create events, groups, share photos and video or find the love of your life

Umuntu Media’s iPortal series was born in response to a lack of local information that is immediately relevant to the people of Africa.

Johan Nel, CEO and founder of Umuntu Media says of the relaunch: “The relaunch of iZambia consolidates our position as the fastest growing online publisher in Africa. From the start we saw tremendous growth in uptake of the portal, clearly demonstrating the need to generate comprehensive, updated and locally relevant content to people across Africa.”

Umuntu Media will soon be launching Mimiboard, a social media tool designed in Africa by Africans for Africa. The platform will be launched in alpha version in January 2012.

Johan Nel, CEO and founder of Umuntu Media says of the relaunch: “The relaunch of iZambia consolidates our position as the fastest growing online publisher in Africa. From the start we saw tremendous growth in uptake of the portal, clearly demonstrating the need to generate comprehensive, updated and locally relevant content to people across Africa.”

Brian Hirman, eVentures Africa Fund: “We are delighted with the relaunch of the iZambia lifestyle portal. The success of the portal from a standing start clearly demonstrates the ongoing and growing need to bring locally relevant content to people across Africa.”

Having recently confirmed a $1m investment from eVentures Africa Fund (eVA Fund), the online publisher is adding two new portals to its stable. iZimbabwe.co.zw and iBotswana.co.bw were launched on 18 November 2011. The launch of the local lifestyle portals in Zimbabwe and Botswana will deliver relevant local content focusing on entertainment, property, jobs, news and so much more to users across each country.

At the same time, Umuntu will be relaunching iNamibia.co.na and iZambia.co.zm, which have both seen significant growth since their initial launch in January this year.

Umuntu CEO and founder Johan Nel explains the rationale behind the expansion: “The tremendous growth of iNamibia and iZambia from a standing start in January has taken us to the next evolutionary step, as we now launch iZimbabwe and iBotswana.

“Now is an exciting time for Africa and also for Umuntu, which we can see in the uptake of our local content portals. We are looking forward to the next phase in which we will be aggressively rolling out seven more portals by April 2012.”

The growth of the iPortal model has brought forward significant opportunities for Umuntu. With mobile as a huge force in Africa, Umuntu will soon be launching Mimiboard, a mobile communications platform, created in Africa, for Africa, designed to cater for Africa’s local content needs.

Brian Hirman, from eVA Fund, expresses support for Umuntu Media’s latest releases: “We started the Umuntu Media journey with Johan Nel about a year ago. It is unbelievable to experience what he and his team have achieved since then. With a firm belief in his dream and with tremendous drive and passion, Johan drives this media company towards a bright future. I’m convinced that Umuntu Media will become a major digital media player in Africa, offering African content and solutions for Africans and by Africans.”

This project further reinforces Umuntu’s mission to “think local, captivate the reader and build world class platforms for Africa from within Africa.”

Umuntu Media has proven this concept to work with their extraordinary uptake of iNamibia and iZambia. The success comes down to truly local content: Umuntu Media employs on the ground journalists and encourages citizen journalism to publish world class local and hyper local news on their platforms.

Umuntu means ‘person’ in Ndebele and people are the core of the strategy. “We want to be the one stop content and information shop for our readers. So far we’ve established a news and entertainment section, offer the largest database of accommodation establishments in Namibia and Zambia, showcase the latest music and events and have integrated a property and job board. All this information is locally produced to create relevance, as we believe it’s the local content that counts.” explained Johan Nel.

Brian Hirman of eVA Fund: “Quality local content is still a gap in the market in Africa. It is a massive challenge, but we have the vision, we have the team and we have the guts to make this happen. We have great confident in Johan Nel and his team. That is why we are happy to invest a second round in Umuntu Media today and will continue to invest and actively support the team in the future.”

This was the performance of inamibia.co.na in Q1 of this year after the 15 January launch. The strong growth has continued into Q2 with iNamibia now being the third biggest site in Namibia already.

iNamibia’s aim is simple. Create a world-class online portal for Namibia; make information and access to all kinds of information easier, concise and cool.

iNamibia is a central aggregation point or portal where every Namibian or any other visitor interested in the country and its people and the events that make waves there can find what they want.

Anything from the latest breaking news to listening to the latest release by their favourite Namibian artists. We are creating the one digital destination where every Namibian should go daily.

This is really a site by Namibians for Namibians about Namibia; our editorial angle is fresh, fun but accurate – and we really have a very diversified audience in terms of demographics. If you are into Namibia, iNamibia is for you.

Peter Mietzner, the editorial powerhouse behind iNamibia’s success states: We are really blown away by the uptake and success. The best reward is when we get those emails, letters and pats on the back from our readers who compliment us on our initiative.

When asked how this growth is possible with a small really team and limited budget, Johan Nel, CEO and founder of Umuntu Media, the holding company for iNamibia, just smiled and said: “It’s actually easy and great fun doing it. There are three main pillars to this and when your focus on those and ensure they are spot-on, you start seeing results.

Number 1: Believe in your vision, see the end result and work towards that and never stop imagining.
Number 2: Get the best people you can, create a fun and creative working environment for them and the magic starts to happen.
Number 3: Never forget who and what this is about; this is for the Namibian people, so build and create and tweak constantly to keep the information relevant and your readers engaged, informed and entertained.

We are certainly excited about the digital revolution in Namibia and look forward to even more exciting times ahead.

Visit www.inamibia.co.na and our very own Facebook fan page and become part of the digital revolution in Namibia.

Umuntu Media is an entrepreneurial start-up founded and funded by Johan Nel and eVentures Africa Fund (eVA Fund).Umuntu Media has reserved numerous other icountry portals across Africa and will be rolling them out during 2011. For instance, www.izambia.co.zm is also live already and showing exactly the same brilliant growth as its sister iNamibia.

(source: BizCommunity.com – 22 June 2011)