COMPUTING
| April 7, 2015, 8:35 a.m.
By Tom Jackson
South Sudan was “born with teeth” as far as its ICT development is concerned, according to an analyst, with the country having made positive steps even pre-independence.
Henry Owera, ICT Systems Analyst & Strategist, was one of a handful of ministers from Africa’s newest country attending the Connected East Africa conference in Diani, Kenya last week.
He said South Sudan had made a number of key breakthroughs even prior to its independence in 2011, and was now working on moving forward in its technological development.
“We were born with teeth. We had made some efforts towards developing ICT infrastructure, and we had the funds to do some of the projects we have undertaken,” Owera said.
The three South Sudanese regional capitals were provided with connectivity pre-independence in 2011, and Owera said the country was moving forwards on boosting connectivity.
“We hope to connect the Juba metropolitan area with fibre-optic and we hope to extend it to the undersea cables. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) already with Kenya for this,” he said.
Owera said in the form of its ID card, released in 2012 and forming digitised ID certificates, South Sudan had actually achieved something other countries in the region had failed to do.
Challenges exist, however, especially in the form of the lack of skills in ICT.
“As a country we are yet to graduate our own IT professionals. But next year we shall have our own graduates, not so many, but we will have them,” Owera said.
