For a while I used to brag about Africa's abilty to leap thru technologies
pick the best and enjoy, without being bogged down by all the
infrastructural constraints and costs.
However it's becoming pretty (and painfully) obvious that infrastructure is
an important enabling means for an sustainable development. :)
This is a really good initiative; so provide the tools we will do the rest.
:)
FRANCIS.
===========================================================================
Kiggundu Mukasa writes:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology
/article2943959.ece
At first glance, Kakungulu, with its handful of half-built houses on a
hillside dirt track, looks like a typical East African town. Looks,
however, can be deceiving. It is, in fact, the front line in a battle to
establish Uganda as the information technology hub of Africa.
On the green, thousand-acre hillside between Kampala and Entebbe in
south-central Uganda, builders have started work on a new city that,
according to its chief funder, will turn the country into the continent�s
answer to Bangalore, India�s IT hub.
Designed to comprise a vast IT park, a stadium, a hospital, an extensive
housing development and a hotel and golf course, Kakungulu Satellite City
is being primed to employ a huge pool of Ugandan graduates in outsourced
Western-style call centres. In five years its backers expect it to
generate up to �97 million annually, almost 20 per cent of the total of
the country�s yearly exports.
Its location is no accident. Commonwealth statistics suggest that Uganda
generates more graduates per capita than any other country in the world.
Its literacy rate is 74 per cent � considerably better than the estimated
60 per cent found in India. In addition, the vast majority of the urban
population speaks English and Uganda is regarded as one of the more
politically stable countries in Africa.
�All these BA and MA graduates from Uganda are doing all kinds of jobs,
but they�re not utilising the skills they learnt at university � some are
even working as security guards in Iraq. The jobs in Uganda are just not
there at the moment,� Vijay Kumar, the director of the projects and
finance division of the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), which is
funding the project, said.
With the skill levels high and opportunity levels low, Uganda has been
earmarked by some business chiefs as an economic boom waiting to happen.
�The country has a highly literate population, a knowledgeable and
skilled workforce,� Mohan Kaul, the director-general of the CBC, said.
�It is obvious that we can use the knowledge and skill base available,
like in India, and turn Uganda into the Bangalore of Africa.�
If British customers ringing call centres are accustomed to being greeted
by Indian accents on the telephone, some people believe that they may
soon be hearing Ugandan ones instead. Kakungulu Satellite City will have
offshore development centres, call centres, back-office facilities, data
processing centres and data centres, all of which will be much cheaper
for multinational firms to run than those in Britain.
According to Prakesh Sundaram, the city�s project manager, it will
undercut even India, which is growing increasingly expensive as it
becomes a high-demand location and its workforce is being paid higher
wages. He said: �India is now not as attractive as it once was, so we
think Uganda may soon take over as the leading place to outsource your
business.�
World attention was on Uganda last week when the country played host to
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), with the Queen and
Gordon Brown among the heads of state and political leaders gathering in
Kampala. The city was spruced up for the visit of a monarch who was last
there in 1954 and Chogm was seen as an opportunity for Uganda to sell
itself to the world.
Support may not have been universal � there were demonstrations from
political opponents of President Museveni, complaining of infringements
to civil rights and demanding sanctions against the country � but Mr
Museveni has been widely credited for leading Uganda away from the legacy
left over from the troubled days of the 1970s, when the country
languished under the regime of Idi Amin. Then the country was largely cut
off from the international community by a government that undertook the
persecution of minority groups, leading to hundreds of thousands of
deaths and a sharp economic decline; now, a stable Uganda is attracting
inward investment. The potential of Kakungulu Satellite City could, its
backers argue, usher in a bright new era for a country that Winston
Churchill dubbed the �Pearl of Africa�.
CBC officials, who are unveiling their plans for the city at a conference
in Kampala this week, hope that its development may encourage the
citizens of African states that are beset by economic crises, such as
Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, to take heart that revival is possible.
Mr Sundaram said: �Instead of just throwing money at the situation, like
some NGOs and charities do, this development will make a much bigger
contribution by actually equipping Ugandan graduates with jobs to improve
their lives. We believe it is the start of great things for Uganda.�
-- Acta Virum Probant --
----
Kiggundu Mukasa
KYM-NET LTD.
Plot 80 Kanjokya Street
P.O. Box 24284 Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 772 972255
+256 414 571779
Fax: +256 312 262122
http://kym.net
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