Uganda’s 30-year plan, the National Vision 2040 is achievable even before the set time, according to the Minister of Science, Technology & Innovations Monica Musenero.
The National Vision is “A transformed Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years”, and involves changing from a predominantly low-income to a competitive upper-middle-income country within 30 years.
According to the Vision, Ugandans desire to have access to affordable quality health and education services, to live in clean and well-planned settlements with access to all social amenities, and to a society free of hunger with strong social safety nets.
Others include the desire to have world-class infrastructure and services, and modern technology to facilitate production and improve productivity, access to clean, affordable and reliable energy sources to facilitate industrialization. The Minister says that the country is on the right path to achieving this long-term vision, at least in the areas of Science and Technology, a sector she heads
Her conclusion comes from the events at the National Science Week, which was preceded by the launch of Uganda’s frost satellite into space on Monday. The week has attracted several innovators including private entrepreneurs, research institutions and universities as well as government agencies.
She says the government through her ministry and the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat has been involved in background work including training innovators and bench-marking for innovation, so as to develop the standard that Uganda wants.
However, Musenero says one of the major challenges to achieving the prosperous country envisaged, is a section of Ugandans themselves who she accuses of attempts to reverse any achievement made, especially by using the media.
The week’s events featured scientific innovations and developments that have been made within the country over time, including in health, agriculture, energy, IT and industry. These are some of the areas that the government set to focus on in the third National Development Plan.
The government organized the show as a way of exposing the products to the Ugandan and the international market, as part of branding the country as a destination for investment into science and technology.
Matthias Möbius, the Founder of Start-Up Africa, a company that promotes innovative startups in Uganda, says much as there is the urge to innovate among Ugandans, the government has not done enough to support this, especially in terms of the policy.
On the progress of the entrepreneurs themselves, Mobius says there is a need to support them, especially in thinking about what they set out to do, in relation to the market they hope to put it to. He says coming up with products, however innovative they are is not enough unless it is tailored to the needs of the public.
There are many innovations that end up not being developed and others die on the shelves because they could not get funding to develop them, or no one found them attractive enough to take. In Uganda, this is also related to the high level of entrepreneurship that the country is hailed for, but most of the new enterprises do not survive beyond five years.
Diana Njuguna, the Senior Investment Manager at Renew Capital said there is a need to put all the talk into action if the innovation industry is to be meaningful for Uganda and other African countries.
Christine Namara, the Venture Partner at the Kenya-based business technology support company, the Baobab Network, said the innovation drive in Uganda is being let down by the corporations in the country which have not shown interest in supporting it.
She says both large private and public agencies should join in and form a fund to help young innovators, instead of waiting to look for money from foreign investors and funds.
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