All set for ICT Innovation Expo 2019

Next week's ICT Innovation Expo 2019 will promote indigenous innovations, information and national guidance minister, Frank Tumwebaze has said with a call for innovators to showcase.

The expo, to be held at the Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Kampala, will showcase innovations in health, e-commerce and pay wallets, among others.

President Yoweri Museveni is expected to grace the expo which aims to build capacity of young Ugandan IT professionals to develop products for use by government and the private sector.

Addressing journalists about the upcoming expo on Tuesday, Tumwebaze said the event was an opportunity to market indigenous technology and promote ‘mature' applications.

"We no longer need to procure expensive IT products from abroad or else if we do, not to continue paying for licenses or maintenance of foreign applications," he stated.

Ugandans are increasingly taking centre stage in developing cutting edge innovations in ICTs with potential to transform the way of life.

In June last year, Brian Gitta, a computer science graduate won the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for developing a bloodless malaria diagnostic kit, fetching £25,000 (sh124m).

The forthcoming ICT expo will be held under the theme: "ICT Innovation Acceleration in Uganda; investing in digital ideas now for the Fourth Industrial Revolution."