It does not make sense to sing agriculture as the solution to our problems when 20 years of revenue from the hard work of over 20 million people can be spent to acquire software developed by just 50 people in 5 years!
Who has seen the Government of Uganda’s cybersecurity strategy? Why can’t the AU organize African countries for the software needed to automate African countries?
One of Uganda’s or Africa’s biggest challenges is allowing its top talent to develop software for global companies and then repurchase it expensively. For example, the government of Uganda has completed the migration from the old Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) to the new integrated human capital management system (HCM). The project was won by Sybyl (formerly Computer Point U Ltd) in partnership with Sybyl Ke Ltd and hSenid Business Solutions PVT Ltd India.
The indicated cost of the HCM project to GOU is UGX 61bn (USD 15.25m). However, in many software projects like these, ongoing costs in the form of support, maintenance, and upgrades to the software by the vendor represent the largest leakage of value. This is partly due to poor commercial contracts with vendors and unclear KPIs in the service-level agreement. I just hope government made a good deal this time to avoid ongoing payments, which tend to increase with each coming year.
Uganda has talented software developers who could have developed a robust HCM system at a quarter or much less of the stated costs with even more features and integrations, and lower costs of system ownership in the long run.
The government can change the tide by financing local software developers with cash and fewer talks. We don’t need the Ministry of Innovation. We need a budget for innovators. We don’t need a Ministry of Anti-Corruption. We need to hold people with visible assets accountable for their source of money.
Cyber warfare, which includes cyber terrorism, cybercrime, cyber sabotage, cyber propaganda disinformation, and cyber espionage, is one of the top threats to the national security of any republic. Many governments discourage/limit the use of externally developed software. The idea is to limit the attack surface.
Where external software must be used, the commercial contract must provide the vendor to allow access to the source code by the client to audit, customize, and review thoroughly for any back doors ongoing. And that is where local developers come in. To create their cloud environment. Restrict remote access and any data transfers.
For this to happen, Africans must deliberately prioritize partnerships in areas that matter.
It does not make sense to sing agriculture as the solution to our problems when 20 years of revenue from the hard work by over 20 million people can be spent to acquire software developed by just 50 people in 5 years!
