MAURITIUS is hunting for IT skills to boost its outsourcing industry. They have a skills gap of 30,000 knowledge workers.
Recently, they came calling and have identified Makerere as a potential supply for their needs because of the quality of product the university is turning out. The ICT Faculty at the university is churning out 900 graduates annually and is supposedly the most prolific in the region.
On the surface, this looks like a godsend in addressing our rising youth unemployment. But looked at another way, if not thought out properly could sound the death knell for the development of our own Business Process Outsourcing industry.
The ICT industry has been identified as one of those sectors in which Uganda can develop a competitive edge. And for a landlocked country like ours, such high value, relatively low input industries, not hampered by road and rail costs is what we should be pushing to nurture.
Currently, several IT laws have been passed but the ministry and industry stakeholders cannot seem to get off the ground. The issue of an incubator – where outsourcers can access infrastructure and personnel to pursue deals is one in initiative that has been muted and the president has pledged funds but has not taken off.
In addition, the ministry needs to be clear about how it is going to exploit this niche, since it seems it is ours to take or lose. Do we have a sense of what our manpower, infrastructure and other needs are? Then do we have a systematic and deliberate policy to bridge these gaps?
So, before we go shipping off all our graduates and more to Mauritius, let us think about ourselves and our needs first.
Source:http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/736400
