Mbabazi tips young ICT innovators

By Billy Rwothungeyo

KAMPALA - Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has urged young innovators to embrace intellectual rights protection to keep canny people from bamboozling their ideas.

“I encourage you to patent your ideas. Do not give up, look at the bigger picture. If you refuse to give up, the sky is not the end, it is just the beginning,” he said.

Mbabazi made the remarks while gracing the 2014 Orange Community Innovations at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Thursday night. Students from various universities around Uganda took part in the competition.

He said that with more youth being innovative, coupled with the right infrastructure, the future of Uganda is bright in ICTs.

K free, a health solution mobile app that aims at combating breast cancer by aiding early detection emerged the best at the awards.

In second place was Kwik Study; an education app that uses flash cards as a revision method to make studying for nursery and primary schools easier. The app also has features for progressive assessment and also promotes more teacher-parent-pupil collaboration.

Kawunyemu, which helps one track the level of alcohol concentration while drinking so that they are in a position to determine whether to drive or not.

Radoslaw Kedzia, the managing director of Huawei Technologies in Uganda called upon organisations to help the youngsters make the apps relevant to people’s lives.

“It is very encouraging to see many ground breaking ideas relevant to agriculture, education and health. We should help these students turn them into success stories,” he said.

The winners at the Community Innovations awards got cash prizes and 12 month paid internship at the telecom firm. 26 mobile apps made the finals.

Vision Group and Huawei partnered with Orange in this year’s awards.