COUNTRY: ESWATINI
Nothando is the COO of Kulani Engineering, a 100% black female-owned Consulting Engineering firm offering multidisciplinary professional services within the infrastructure value chain.
Nothando holds a BSc in Civil Eng. (2012) and MSc in Civil Eng. (2014) obtained from the University of Cape Town. In 2015, she was one of 100 global scholars selected to be part of the first cohort of the prestigious Yenching Academy Program at Peking University in Beijing (China). During this year that she spent completing her Master of Economics in China Studies, she grew a profound appreciation for the role infrastructure plays in economic development, and it’s potential to uplift Africa’s economies when strategically implemented with a clear regard for contextual appropriateness. Her time in Asia also fuelled her wanderlust and lifelong interest in tourism and desire to explore the world’s immense diversity and cultural offerings. Living in a country (China), and within a culture, so different from her own was one of her best life decisions yet. It was more than an eye-opener – it was a doorway to greater consciousness. Since returning, she has made it her mission to be a socially mindful engineer who equally prioritises the technical and social aspects of engineering in her work. As part of this mission, Nothando is involved in a housing strategy project whose mandate is to aid lower-income employees in her workplace enter the housing market earlier by seeking solutions that mitigate affordability barriers. Nothando has made it her mission to expose herself to as many opportunities and experiences as possible, to enable herself to contribute to society, and to engineer economic change in any way that she can for our Africa.