iTransfer matches teachers, nurses seeking transfers

A digital platform launched this year is helping Namibian teachers, nurses and public servants find colleagues willing to swap postings, tapping into a need long served only by informal networks.

Leonard Nangolo Akathingo launched iTransfer in January to help teachers find cross-transfer partners across Namibia's 14 regions. The platform, now open to nurses and other public servants, has registered 970 educators to date.

"I did not create iTransfer because I thought Namibia needed another website; I developed it because I believed Namibia needed a better way for its people to connect," Akathingo told Ewi lyaNooli recently.

A self-described Namibian mental health advocate, author, entrepreneur and self-taught mobile application and website developer, Akathingo said he leverages technology, education and personal experience to create practical solutions to social challenges.

"Across Namibia, thousands of public workers are stationed far from their homes," he said. "A teacher from Kunene may be working in Kavango West, while a nurse could be hundreds of kilometres away from her children. Public servants often spend years separated from their spouses."

To address this, many seek transfers to be closer to family and friends. However, a common roadblock is that, although someone elsewhere in the country is often seeking the exact opposite transfer, the two never connect, Akathingo said.

Opportunities are frequently lost in WhatsApp groups, Facebook posts and informal networks.

iTransfer is a digital cross-transfer matching platform that does not create or approve government transfers; that responsibility remains with the government. Instead, iTransfer's role is to facilitate connections.

"A teacher in Kavango West wishing to relocate to Kunene can register, just as a teacher in Kunene seeking a position in Kavango West can," Akathingo said.

He said his focus to create the platform sharpened after three male educators in the Ohangwena region died by suicide between June and July 2025. Having worked in the mental health sector, he said the deaths prompted him to examine the working conditions of public servants more closely.

He stopped short of linking the transfer system to the deaths, noting the complexity of suicide, but said he observed recurring patterns: separation from family, difficult working conditions and emotional exhaustion. "When a person's well-being is compromised, their ability to serve diminishes as well," he said.

“We often refer to teachers, nurses and public servants as numbers. Behind each employee, however, is a human being. A teacher has a family. A nurse has a family. A public servant has a family.”

He emphasised that while the platform will not resolve every problem and is not a solution for mental health challenges on its own, it provides professionals with better tools to explore changes in their working locations.

“An affected worker will always be an ineffective worker. When we care for our people, we strengthen the nation. iTransfer is about connecting individuals to where they belong so they can continue doing the work they are meant to do,” he said.

Built from scratch

The iTransfer platform collects structured information, including current location, desired location, teaching phase, subjects, grade and other relevant details and then identifies potential matches.

Unlike social media posts that are temporary, a request on iTransfer remains in the database. If there is no match today, a new user joining in the future might create one tomorrow.

Akathingo said the concept was first tested with educators and received an overwhelmingly positive response.

Currently, 970 educators are registered and actively looking for cross-transfer opportunities. This success has spurred an expansion into healthcare with iTransfer Nurse, as well as into broader public services with iTransfer Pro.

He noted that the individuals using iTransfer are more than mere statistics. "They are parents, spouses and caregivers striving to get closer to home," he said.

Akathingo cited the case of two educators, one from Kunene teaching in Kavango West, the other from Kavango West teaching in Kunene, whose paths never crossed until iTransfer connected them.

Other users include husbands seeking to relocate closer to their wives, parents assisting their children, and workers dealing with medical or personal difficulties.

Confidentiality and data security are central to the platform, Akathingo said.

"This work involves real lives, not just email addresses."

Akathingo developed the platform independently, without investors, government grants or backing from large tech companies. He built the technology himself and manually verified transactions during the pilot phase.

“The platform is currently self-funded. Premium access costs N$200 for three months for educators and N$300 for three months for nurses. iTransfer Pro for public servants is still in its trial phase,” he said.

Building toward the future

Akathingo's goal is not to rely solely on subscription fees but to collaborate with government, specifically through the Office of the Prime Minister, to integrate iTransfer into a national workforce mobility system. In this envisioned future, public servants would not need to pay to seek internal mobility opportunities.

His immediate plan involves transitioning iTransfer from the web to a fully functional mobile application available on Google Play and the Apple App Store, ensuring that a teacher in a rural village has equal access as someone in Windhoek.

Within two years, Akathingo hopes to cultivate a much larger national database with thousands of active users and foster institutional collaboration. He also aims to explore additional areas where Namibians face challenges in connecting to resolve workforce or social issues.