• A youth playing kung fu in the gaming house

By GETHSEMANE MWIZABI –
THE power of ideas does often push people to the edge.
In a world with all sorts of problems some go to bed hopping those problems would melt away like sheer mist at dawn.
Others like Steve Jobs, took a plunge, turned their minds into processing machines and solved the world’s problems through Apple products.
For Emmanuel Ntumba, 33, the motivation is quiet the same. To him, like the school of business thought, dictates, it is all about solving problems and identifying needs, otherwise why would a business industry exist.
He has seen a problem in Ndola, and he wants to solve it. Thus, he has introduced a gaming house with all sorts of state of the art gadgets.
Unlike Lusaka and probably Kitwe, Ndola goes to bed pretty early. The routine is constant, home to work and work to home.
Ndola is one of the cities starved of meaningful entertainment.
After 19:00 hours the majority of people withdraw to their homes until sunrise and the predictable programmes sets in.
“I had been thinking about what can be done about it.
When I look at cities like Johannesburg or Lusaka, they hardly go to sleep because there are plenty of places to go even at night,” he said.
And so he needed to come up with something unique and there it was a gaming house, where children and adults alike can have fun, all day long until the late in the night.
At 33, he dreamt of something, without being a dreamer. Having stayed in South Africa, Johannesburg to be specific, he learned of the game
house concept, where in one roof there are plenty of games such as play station, football, music reversals (like that of the American Idol), motor racing, boxing and several more.
For those with interest to become pilots, animated flight lessons on huge screens are all over the place.
“There are plenty of young people who dream to be pilots. I thought, coming up with that concept would be a great motivation because, once you sit on the chair you do everything a pilot needs does like starting the plane, flying it and landing it,” he said.
The process of playing the pilot, done with an encoded instructor who at every turn in the air instructs the pilot on the step he or she should take.
It looks real but it is all virtual and, makes the heart merry.
Mr Ntumba, an accomplished Information Technology and Website designer sees the world through computers and electronic gadgets.
He is inspired by Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs, the late American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor who was the co-founder and chairman of Apple.
Through Apple, he is widely recognised as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming “one industry after another, from computers and smart phones to music and movies”.
When you are in the place there are huge portraits of Steve Jobs and American president Barack Obama, hanging on the walls.
Coming up with a gaming house, came with some challenges for the introverted brainy youth. As a matter of fact, it is the second time he set-up the same facility.
First it was at Ndola’s Jacaranda Mall, where he operated for some time but due to high costs, sustainability became a challenge.
“People were coming but it was so expensive to maintain and the space was not big enough. Now we have the whole house to ourselves,” said the youth whose business in based at the junction of Kabelenga and Dr Dammie Road in Ndola’s Town Centre area.
His advice to fellow youths is to be innovative. Indeed, his might look like a toy house full of over 10 High Definition (HD) smart televisions all over the wall, but it is something of a marvel.
Each televisions scream, has a unique game and the whole house colours are dim. Walls are painted with exotic colours. It is a different world altogether. It has become a favourite spot for young people every weekend and those stressed up to cool off after a long day.
“I believe in the power of ideas. The world is governed by ideas of men and women (dead or alive) who venture into the unknown become later on trend settles,” said the soft spoken website master.
His belief is if all men and women had the ability to process ideas, poverty and unemployment would not be an issue.
He is against the idea of scouting for a job other than creating one, saying that was the only way Africa could develop.
How did he get started?
Well, first it was an idea and then it became a reality. He did not have much capital, but the little savings he made from his salary, it got him off the ground.
Mr Ntumba is not in the hurry to make money, which is why his main pre-occupation now is creating a strong customer base.
“The idea is to have more people and later on the business would sustain itself,” he said.
He does not believe in the idea of living from pay cheque to pay cheque when one can invent ideas, and create industries of their own.
True, dominant thought in graduates of always looking for jobs after school, was enslaving.
“People go to school to have their minds opened and challenged to think big. Instead of creating a job, why worry about not finding one?” he asked.
His vision is to create a gaming industry where families would have fun.
For now, the journey has begun.