By: Keletso Mkhwanazi.
A top child safety company in Africa, PasswordKid, works to stop kidnappings and unlawful child pickups in daycare facilities and primary schools. The business believes that children should have the security of regularity and familiarity, and it offers cutting-edge child safety solutions. “Parents, teachers, and student transport drivers can use PasswordKid’s smartphone service to safely and effectively pick up their children from school. With the help of ingenious keys that let teachers know who will be picking up the kids, the technology successfully releases students from their classrooms,” said Keletso Lekwakwe, founder and manager of the company.
He told Vutivi News that the objective was to enable traceable conversations regarding the safety and well-being of children and to give everyone confidence in the safety of kids leaving school. Lekwakwe, who invented PasswordKid, was a football player growing up and observed that many parents who worked far from where their children were taught, would arrive late to pick them up. To deal with this problem, he decided to form a company, which started operating in 2020.
“Parents now have peace of mind going through a day without worrying about their child safety, and the machine being about change, it aims to decrease unemployment by hiring youth members to operate our machine inside the schools.” Currently, the company works in and around Tshwane, with campuses in Mamelodi, Eastlyn, and Ga-Rankuwa.
Due to a lack of funding and knowledge, the company’s major obstacles were developing the software on its own and changing the attitudes of parents and schools. “By June 2024, PasswordKid hopes to have at least 10,000 kids using their platform, while also hiring at least 10 kids and community members. The long-term objective is to enrol in each preschool and creche in the nation,” said Lekwakwe.
Furthermore, he added that in Eastlyn, the business now employed one female employee who primarily worked as a paid volunteer operating a PasswordKid station. “We cannot afford a minimum wage for now, but she’ll soon be permanently employed,” he said. Lekwakwe shared his company’s achievements with Vutivi News. “Our biggest should be our first win of the Uber Tech For Safety Summit & GAP Innovation Competition 2022 under the ICT category and the second being the winner of the Vodacom SME Thrive Summit,” he said. “Never stop being innovative, learn from Nokia & other businesses that went out of the market because of lack of innovation. The world is moving, move with it.”
