For our last episode of the BRICS Rising Star series, we feature a start-up in South Africa that uses the digital revolution to embrace new opportunities. Ordinary citizens in the BRICS nations haven't yet felt the full impact of advancing technology but young people are desperate to make connections and form meaningful partnerships. A young entrepreneur in South Africa is using technology to upgrade the education sector and improve literacy in schools across the country. This is his story.

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "My name is Nicholas Bereng, I'm Director at Brand Laiki and Director at Map Invest I was a budding musician working alongside a group of gentleman who were trying to release my project globally. so instead they said, we want your music to have content, to be rich in what you talk about. So, we will give you a year for you to do nothing but read. So that, the minute you write music, you actually have something to say. And I read about 125 books in that year."

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "Halfway into that, I realised that perhaps my calling is not in music, I wish I had somebody, at the age of 9 who promotes reading like how I'm trying to do it in the country that because that then would allow me the 9-year-old to have a good idea, or to meet Thomas Edison who would spark something inside of me to be a little greater than I am."

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "You need to also think about the South African child, what they are exposed to the popular musicians. They are exposed to soapies. So, they look up to these individuals. So, my work is to create an understanding or a partnership with these individuals that are celebrated within these societies to then impart the interest of reading to the child."

"Last year, we had South Africa's first digital, pro-reading concert. So, my whole point is to change the desire for them to read. Right now there's no desire.

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "So, how we work, we adopt a school, and then we have an agreement with the English Department, if then they tell us where the kids marks are. We expose them to the project and then we go back to see how they have performed."

"We have adopted 10 schools in Soweto. and we are now working on a project that's going to take us to rural schools in the Northwest. A lot of the rural schools are very left behind. Some of these kids have not been exposed to an iPad, let alone a cell phone."

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "It's very important for the kids in South Africa to be aware of what the kids in Finland are doing. It's important. And the best way to do that is to engage them in their prospective geographical designations, but technology is nothing but an ally. It won't eradicate our problems. But it can make the solutions to those problems quite easy to achieve."

NICHOLAS BERENG, DIRECTOR BRAND LAIKI "A lot of products that we're getting, even the VR solutions with our partners in China. So, they are designing these devices for us to meet these needs. So, I believe that we need a lot more overt partnerships and partnerships that don't just end at a summit. So, I believe that how it could assist us, is exposure to more technological possibilities to the South African or African child."