Cente – Tech has announced the appointment of Rowena Turinawe as Head – ICT Advisory, Strategy and Research.
Rowena joins Cente Tech from the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) where she has been serving in in a senior management role as Business Transformation Manager.
At NITA-U, she provided oversight and support for the establishment of the e-Government Enterprise Architecture, development of the NITA-U Strategic Plan and e-Government capacity building across Government of Uganda. She was responsible for realigning the way NITA-U operates including reengineering internal processes and how technology is used. Whilst there, she implemented the ICT approvals initiative across Government where she led the team that designed, reviewed and streamlined over 470 requirement specifications for IT systems and equipment. It is reported that owing to this initiative, Government of Uganda saved over $10M that would have been lost through purchase of non-essential systems or duplicated systems & applications.
Rowena has a Master of Science in Information Systems and Change Management from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She has specialized qualifications that include: Change Management Practitioner (PROSCI), Senior Leadership Development Training (Strathmore Business School), COBIT 5, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®), Project Management Professional (PMP®), and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) among others.
Following the appointment, Cente Tech’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Grace Ssekakubo said, ‘a critical enabler to achieving our strategy is to hire the best people out there and Rowena is testament to that.’
‘Rowena will help our clients deliver rapid, visible performance improvements in the short term while strengthening their organizations and positioning them to win in the future,’ he added.
Cente-Tech Chief Technology Officer, Peter Kahiigi, commented, ‘we are thrilled to have Rowena on board. The experience she brings will be invaluable to Cente Tech and perfectly complements our desire to provide holistic technology solutions and deliver innovation that matters to enable and inspire growth.’
Over her 10 year career, Rowena has set up various digital transformation initiatives to succeed & navigated organizational dynamics that often derail transformation. Whilst at NITA-U, Rowena
managed the team responsible for the Whole of Government Systems Integration, a project aimed at integrating all information systems across the public and private sector. The now live service will allow for citizens, using their National ID number, to access public & private sector services without having to fill our repeated KYC (know your customer) documents. It is reported that so far, over 50 entities have been connected to the integration platform, now named UGHUB including 23 banks.
In November 2021, Rowena was appointed to the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and Innovation Council. The first of its kind in Uganda, the council works with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to formulate strategies for creating jobs for the youth through ICT outsourcing and Innovation; and prescribe regulatory frameworks/reforms and projects relevant to the growth of the BPO and Innovation industry.
In the same month, Rowena was named by CIO Africa as among those in the ‘Top 35 Most Influential Women in Technology in Africa’. This is the first time Ugandan Women in Tech had been featured, speaking to the impact that Rowena has had within the ICT space locally and regionally. The CIO Africa platform highlights ICT investment opportunities, innovation, intellectual property and trends of the converging technologies. Prior to that, Rowena was profiled by Vision Group’s ‘Top 40 under 40’ project for driving transformation in the ICT and technology arena in Uganda.
Before joining NITA-U, Rowena served as Front Office Service Manager for MTN IT Shared Services (Uganda, Rwanda, Swaziland, Zambia, South Sudan) where she was in charge of the technical support team supporting 48,000 staff in the 5 MTN countries to ensure quick incident resolution and service request fulfilment. She expertly managed the technical stability of 150 applications across the 5 countries whilst ensuring the co-existence of 25 multi-ethnical international system vendors.
Rowena’s niche lies in : Business/digital transformation, Enterprise Architecture development, Strategic planning and implementation, ICT strategy, ICT Research, IT service management, delivery of complex projects, stakeholder management, and technical support management, process and policy design as well as service delivery.
Rowena’s mantra is, ‘when digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.’
Cente-Tech is committed to using technology to sustainably progress the digital foundation of the connected world with a focus on the Centenary Group’s subsidiaries and its customers. Cente-Tech will play a key role in placing the Group subsidiary companies at the center of customers’ digital transformation and accelerate the Group’s digital agenda.
Cente-Tech is a subsidiary of Centenary Group. Other subsidiaries include Centenary Bank and Centenary Foundation.
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