Amid worries that it might not be used to create riches, the government has begun the process of establishing the infrastructure for 5G Internet, which is anticipated to be implemented in the nation next year.
At the TechnoServe Inaugural Entrepreneurship Stakeholder’s Forum in Kampala, Nyombi Thembo, the Director of the Universal Access Fund at the Uganda Communications Commission, stated that while illiteracy and high gadget costs will continue to be obstacles to IT, Uganda’s connectivity problems will soon be a thing of the past.
Even while they demand higher-generation networks, he claimed that many Ugandans are not using their high-tech phones for job prospects or innovation but for social media chats.
Through partnerships with other stakeholders, TechnoServe, an NGO founded in the United States that aims to lift people out of poverty in developing nations, operates in more than 40 developing nations across several sectors.
With the topic “Innovation and Inclusion: Collaboration for Sustainable Entrepreneurship Ecosystem,” the conference served as a venue for networking, problem-solving, and stock-taking within the entrepreneurial community.
According to Thembo, in addition to setting up fully functional resource centers across the nation to support SMEs, the government is constructing more than 200 websites globally with assistance from the World Bank.
Thembo warned that politicians will have to include internet connectivity in their manifestos or else “they will get problems” in order to make connectivity and access more pertinent to the nation’s development goal.
Micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in Uganda and other developing nations have struggled to keep up with global innovation because of a lack of resources, particularly capital and skilled labor.
This also results from SMEs’ incapacity to obtain funding to support their operations, particularly in unappealing industries like agriculture.
Director of TechnoServe’s Entrepreneurship Programs for East Africa, Alice Warweru, stated that the organization is trying to enable rural businesses, particularly those in agriculture, so they may benefit from the nation’s digital transformation.
She claims that because farmers and other business owners choose to operate alone rather than collaborate, they face difficulties due to a lack of resources.
According to TechnoServe, the primary obstacle they face is the businesses that fail a few years after they are founded. For this reason, it is critical to equip innovators and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and abilities to run their businesses responsibly.
According to Julius Byaruhanga, Director of Policy and Business Development at the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Uganda’s lack of a Startup Policy is the root of the nation’s SME development issues.
He claims that in order to create one, they are collaborating with the Trade Ministry.
In order to promote competitive industries, TechnoServe has been actively working with entrepreneurs, Ugandan farmers, cooperatives, suppliers, and processors with an emphasis on dairy, coffee, horticulture, maize, and beans.
The significance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the economy is emphasized by Juliet Kyokunda, the Country Director of TechnoServe Uganda.
She gave the example of the global vanilla market price swings to illustrate her point that small farmers occasionally face problems for which they have no answers and thus require assistance in finding other options.