ANDREW WILLIAMS OCAYA: Is Uganda ready for ‘RADICAL SHIFT’ in terms of Digital Transformation?

As Africa seeks to join the Digital Transformation bandwagon in order to drive the next phase of economic growth, Africa and in particular Uganda seems to have completely missed the mark and is not even playing catch up.

In this case, I will refer to The Internet (Data). Uganda is pushing a blind start-up movement without asking fundamental questions like what are the core technologies that these start-ups are either going to develop or to be built on top of.

I will explain, that the Foundation of the Global Internet as we know it is driven by Internet Protocols and these Internet Protocols are the Standards/Proposed Standards that underpin the Internet enabling it to operate as a single unit universally. It is these Internet Protocols that actually shape the core technology that powers the Internet and a case in point are the three protocols that power email one of which is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

These Internet Protocols are regulated by two global bodies, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which is responsible for the Standards associated with Broadband Internet (Satellite, Ethernet/Cable and Fiber Internet and The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) which is responsible for the standards associated with Mobile/Cellular Internet/Data.

Now here is a hard truth, as long as Uganda’s digital transformation led by the Ministry of ICT, NITA and the Start-up innovation hubs etc are not in any form or shape linked to these global standards bodies, all our so-called innovation and digital development is simply short term gratification ie. create something short-term and make some money.

We must build IT products and services that align with global standards and move away from simple IT solutions like developing apps, websites and databases. Our ICT policies and start-up culture must be built on top of the need to have Government and the private sector support entities that will develop core technologies that can then be globally standardized through organizations like IETF and 3GPP. Now under the Ugandan setting, we can use these developed core technologies as the platform for start-ups here to take on a global outlook.

One would think this is a pipe dream but it isn’t and knowing our attitude in Africa, these suggestions can be easily ignored but there is an African entity that has chosen to remain private all on its own without Government support or the usual Venture Capital from the West has over the past fourteen years developed core technologies that are now part of the global standards and we can use this African entity’s silent success as a template to guide the Ugandan and for that matter African ICT policies.

So this article is based on fact and not a hope that it can be done because it has already been done and within the coming year, this core African technology will find its way into the African digital space given that it’s already a global standard.

I will give you an example, we are now moving to the next phase of the Internet, Web 3.0 or Spatial Web, this new Web 3.0 that will be powered not only by Machine To Consumer (M2C) but also by Machine To Machine (M2M) aka IoTs, AIoTs, Sensors and Actuators. Everything will gradually become a smart device not only a smartphone.

Now using this as an example, Uganda now has no M2M policy in place and isn’t ready to handle it yet.