KAMPALA: Last week, Government of Uganda and Centenary Group inked a partnership deal that will see the two parties work together in areas of ICT advisory and consultancy, develop strategies, implement infrastructure related services and share knowledge to resolve some of the issues faced by Uganda in the ICT sector. Key during the Memorandum of Understanding signed last Thursday at Mapeera House were Centenary Group Chairman, Prof. Ddumba Ssentamu and ICT and National Guidance Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi. Dr. Baryomunsi assured participants of the government’s interest in expanding the digital space and improving digital literacy.
“We are extremely committed,” Dr. Baryomunsi said, looking at Prof. Ddumba,”We count on you (Centenary Family) to see that all our aspirations become a reality.”
Earlier, Prof. Ddumba said that assured the Government of a successful collaboration.
“You can count on our assurance. This will be a successful collaboration, at least from our side. We look forward to strengthening our partnership as we together build more resilient, sustainable and inclusive Uganda economy,” Prof. Ddumba said.
The message from the two principles had an impact on the faces of both Centenary Group and Government officials.
“Centenary Bank works through communities. We have been working with Ugandans for over 30 years. We are very keen on developing technology that’s why we had to introduce things like the Cente Mobile banking platforms, the agents that we are using, all that uses technology. So, when there is this opportunity where we will be working with the government to be able to deliver that better, we are always very happy,” Fabian Kasi, Centenary bank Managing Director.
“CenteTech is supposed to work with us to drive the ICT sector forward. We are the leader of the digital transformation program. We are supposed to digitize and automate government processes and also help our citizens get services efficiently and effectively but also to create opportunities for youth employment. With these various partnerships, we seek to come up with solutions and innovations that are going to enable us to get more youths employed but also create solutions that provide efficiency to all our citizens,” ICT and National Guidance Permanent Secretary, Dr. Aminah Zawedde said.
On the sidelines of the MoU signing, we interacted with Dr. Grace Ssekakubo, the acting Chief Executive Officer – CenteTech (Centenary Technology Services) and he had these to say:
MediaScapeNews: Why partner with the Government?
Dr. Grace Ssekakubo: Government has made a deliberate effort in developing and establishing a robust ICT infrastructure across the country. It is this ICT infrastructure that has attracted private players like CenteTech to develop or to have to trade services along this infrastructure, develop solutions, to help our people in the rural communities. Government has put in deliberate efforts to support innovations in this country and the youth have embraced this push. They have gone on to develop a lot of solutions that can be used to solve a lot of problems in this country.
MediaScapeNews: Is there a gap that you see that CenteTech is here to fill?
Dr. Grace Ssekakubo: Yes. There is a gap between development of solutions and having these solutions where they are desired or where they are useful. That is to commercialize or to implement the solutions. There is a gap between the innovation hubs and the industry where these solutions are supposed to be used and that is the gap that CenteTech is coming on to bridge
MediaScapeNews: And how does CenteTech intend to do this?
Dr. Grace Ssekakubo: Centenary as a brand has got a huge footprint in the rural communities. The rural communities out there are having a lot of economic activities that they are involved in which if we integrate ICT into what they are doing, we can actually involve them into the money economy. So, we are looking at picking up innovations from the innovation hubs of the government, polishing them up, appropriating them, and taking them to where they are supposed to be used. Centenary Group alone has got a very wide sparse business portfolios (schools, hospitals, church, the bank etc.) These alone can consume a lot of innovative applications and solutions that are developed by the government in the innovation hubs.
MediaScapeNews: And what do you hope to achieve?
Dr. Grace Ssekakubo: So, when we pick, polish and appropriate them where they are supposed to be used, that way, we are doing 3 things: 1.we are helping to onboard various economic players into the money market, 2. We are creating jobs and 3. We are helping government efforts in the integration of ICT into service delivery to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the services to our people.