The Secretary General of the Common Wealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Hon. Shola Tylor was Friday amazed by ongoing innovations at Ugandan technology incubation hub, Afrosoft IT solutions.
Hon. Tylor who was in the country to discuss cyber security and other technology related issues with various stakeholders took a moment to visit and share with innovators at Afrosoft who are under the mentorship of Ronald Katamba.
CTO is the oldest and largest Commonwealth intergovernmental organisation in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Being fully involved in the development and use of ICTs for social and economic development, the organization identifies and empowers young and budding ICT innovations through their different programmes including awards, seminars among others.
Afrosoft IT solutions is among the incubation centres that have stood out both locally and internationally through their various cutting edge innovations that present great potential to change the world.
In September 2016, the CTO recognized and awarded Katamba for his livestock management innovation, the Jaguza Livestock App that monitors and diagnoses early stages of diseases in animals, using sensor technology.
The software has also received recognition from the ITU Telecom World Entrepreneurship Awards, CTA Africa and the Ashoka Change Maker.
In his remarks, Hon Tylor lauded Katamba and his team at Afrosoft for the efforts put in mentoring and skilling youths saying innovation is the only way ahead.
“As an organization, we do all we can to support partner states but individual efforts like this are what keep innovation boosting,” he said.
“Ronald was one of the winners at our awards gala last year (2016) and its really great to see what he is doing here,” he added.
Among the other notable projects going on at Afrosoft include an automatic pill dispensing machine that is being developed by a form 5 student, an electronically switched home system and a number of others all rotating around the Internet of Things.
On his side, Afrosoft director Katamba thanked the CTO for supporting innovation and ICT development, calling on more support financially to Ugandan innovators.
“There is a lot we can do but we get limited by finances. As mentors, we see great potential in innovators but most of the ideas don’t get to see light of the day because we lack financial support,” he said.