COMPUTING
By Gregory Gondwe, Blantyre, Malawi
NeuroTech, part of a Pan-African IT conglomerate known as Green Systems Africa, hosted the first ever Oracle Road show event in Malawi a good part of last week where IT specialists from various companies met with experts from the company, as well as Oracle.
NeuroTech Services Enterprise Manager Daniel Kinyua told Biztechafrica in an exclusive interview that the meeting brought together their customers and would be customers from different sectors of the economy that included Banking, Telcos, Insurance companies and Government etc.
“Sixty IT Professionals managed to attend. We also had guest speakers from Oracle RSA, Mauritius and Kenya,” he said.
Kinyua said since NeuroTech is the Oracle Value Added Reseller (VAR) in Malawi, they saw fit to invite IT professionals so that, together with Oracle, they can showcase the products and services available in the country from Oracle and NeuroTech.
“We had a very informative Q&A session which helped us get immediate feedback and needs currently in the market. We already engaged a number of companies in meeting their short-term and long-term Oracle requirements,” added Kinyua.
NeuroTech has been providing enterprise IT and telecommunication Solutions in Malawi for the past two years, while parent company Green Systems Africa has been operating in South, East and Central Africa (SECA) countries for 10 years.
Oracle Regional Sales manager for Zambia and Malawi, Njabulo Ibrahim Moyo, said as IT service providers, they found it necessary to equip IT specialists so that their respective companies have better services which will in return develop the country.
“Oracle is the pioneer of technology in the industry. We are one of the biggest corporations and we service our customers by enabling them to manage IT, simply the IT and give them services and solutions that can address paying points in the industry,” he said.
NeuroTech’s vision for Malawi
Kinyua also told Biztechafrica about NeuroTech’s vision for Malawi. “Our vision is to see Malawi embracing IT in all aspects of the economy,” said Kinyua.
He said IT can greatly improve efficiency and lower cost for businesses and government.
“There has been a gap between the needs in the market and what IT companies are offering. NeuroTech is seeking to fill this gap through state-of-the-art home-grown solutions that are easy to deploy, manage and have low-cost implementation,” explained Kinyua.
“I would also like to see more young people taking careers in IT. In this way, IT can be a forex earner if Malawi can manage to send people to work in other countries or outsource their skills to companies outside the country,” he explained further.
Where Malawi’s ICT industry will be in 5 years
Kinyua says there is an opportunity for growth and improvement for Malawi’s ICT industry. NeuroTech expects a drop in internet charges in years to come.
“ICT lives on the internet and growth cannot be achieved unless connectivity is addressed to an acceptable charge. All the other pieces in the ICT world fall into place when connectivity is addressed,” said Kinyua.
He said the best IT innovators and professionals are self taught. And such are people with passion for IT and who can make a big difference given a laptop and affordable internet.
“Other countries have done it, Malawi too can do it,” he declared.
Kinyua says with more forums and events like the just concluded NeuroTech and Oracle road show, they expect more and more business to allocate more expenditure towards IT staff and training in order to meet the current business challenges.
