A curiosity that became a calling.
Akandwanaho Ivan (Alvin) is a software engineer and the CEO and co-founder of Codesphere Innovations (U) Limited. Born in Mbarara, Uganda, he began programming at 13. What started as a young person’s fascination with technology has grown into a commitment to building software around African needs.
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Ivan’s story begins in Mbarara, where his interest in technology took root long before it became a career. By the age of 13, he had already started programming. He was not always the highest-performing student in the classroom, but that did not put a ceiling on what he wanted to learn. Technology gave him a way to explore, experiment and make something of his own. His early academic record was one part of his story; the determination to keep building would become another.
During the COVID period, that interest developed into active experimentation. Ivan spent those years learning programming languages and working on projects, putting what he learned into practice as he went. The attraction was in seeing an idea become something that ran: code could be changed, tested and improved. That habit of learning through building became an important part of his development as a software engineer.
Among his early projects were Haxcon VPN and Haxcon Droid VPN, alongside other VPN tools developed during his younger years. These projects explored connectivity and aimed to help people in Uganda access free internet. They form part of his early technical journey, when networking and software were becoming practical interests rather than subjects to read about. His later work would take that interest in access into other areas, including agriculture and opportunities for work.
Ivan studied at ISBAT University and holds several certificates in ethical hacking. His technical learning has also extended across Python, JavaScript, C#, Java, C++ and Go. Python is the language he knows most deeply. Learning across languages has been part of a continuing effort to understand different ways of building software, while ethical hacking adds a security perspective to that foundation.
Ivan is actively building Hinzia from scratch with the aim of addressing problems faced by African communities. Its agricultural focus brings together farmers, buyers and suppliers, with tools for trading and keeping farm records. The intended impact is practical: help agricultural participants connect, make useful information easier to access and support more organised activity. Building that vision takes sustained work beyond an initial idea, and Hinzia remains an active part of his engineering journey.
Ivan has also put substantial development work into Funa Gigs. The ambition behind that work is to make it easier for people with skills to connect with people who need them. A platform of this kind could help workers make their abilities visible and help customers find suitable support. For Ivan, the intended impact is broader access to earning opportunities through technology. It is an ambition that depends on continued development, adoption and the experience of the people using the product.
Today, Ivan brings this background to his role at Codesphere Innovations. His path connects early programming, experiments in connectivity, formal study, security training and the ongoing work of developing products. It is a story of persistence as much as technical interest: not always leading the class did not stop him from pursuing a field that held his attention. The thread running through it is the desire to keep learning and turn that learning into useful software.
An agricultural technology platform Ivan is building from the ground up, aimed at addressing African agricultural needs. Its Google Play listing names Akandwanaho Ivan in the developer information and identifies codesphere labz as the publisher.
Explore Hinzia on Google PlayA platform Ivan has worked extensively on, with the aim of connecting skills with demand and opening up opportunities to earn. It is included here as part of his personal development journey.
Early VPN projects reflecting Ivan’s interest in networking and internet access in Uganda, developed during the period when he was expanding his programming skills.
Explore related public records and publications.
Hinzia · developer information on Google PlayCodesphere · public company profile
