Two Ugandan female ICT professionals have been recognised as being among the 35 most influential women in technology in Africa.

Vivian Ddambya and Rowena Turinawe, both employees of the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U), received the recognition yesterday from CIO Africa, an authoritative IT magazine serving the continent’s information and communications technology industry.

The two have been profiled before by Vision Group’s “Top 40 Under 40” project for driving transformation in the ICT and technology arena.

The Ugandan ICT sector continues to grow, among the fastest sectors of the economy, therefore, the recognition when compared among other countries, is testimony that indeed technology in Uganda is on the right trajectory.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption and implementation of many technologies that would have taken years, if not decades, to become mainstream.

Ugandans switched from high touch, highly analogue daily interactions at work, school and entertainment avenues to the exact opposite in a span of a few weeks.

Ddambya and Turinawe have been at the heart, in driving this transformation.

Among the first to congratulate them, Uganda’s permanent secretary for ICT and National Guidance, Dr Aminah Zawedde, said, “Congratulations to our very own Vivian Ddambya and Rowena Turinawe for holding the Women in Tech, Africa flag high. Uganda is proud of you.”

Who are they?

Turinawe, the business transformation manager at NITA-U, has over nine years of national and regional IT service management experience (spanning five countries) at mid-management and senior management level in the following fields; e-Governance, business transformation, strategic planning and implementation, IT service management, delivery of complex projects, stakeholder management, event monitoring and technical support management, process and policy design, as well as service delivery.

About her recognition, Turinawe said, “I give God the credit for the accolade and for the desire and knowledge He imparted in me to be able to contribute to my country and the continent in the ICT and tech arena.”

Vivian Ddambya is the Director Technical Services, NITA-U. Driven by a passion to explore what technology can do to transform lives and its practical application to solving everyday problems, Ddambya provides technical support and guidance on all matters related to ICT infrastructure, systems and services within Government.

She manages the country’s largest and most stable optical fiber cable network, National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) that spans over 4,000km across the country connecting more than 600 Government offices.

Dambya says it’s been a journey of hardwork and lucky breaks.