CELEBRATING A YEAR OF ICT INNOVATION IN UGANDA
- ACIA 2014 Winners
In a colorful and splendid event that was held at Serena hotel yesterday, UCC hosted the fourth Annual Communications Innovations Awards (ACIA 2014). The event was graced by the ICT Minister of state Hon Nyombi Thembo who stood in for the ICT Minister Hon John Nasaria. The key guest speaker was Mr Ivan Lumala a Microsoft Senior Product Manager who gave a brilliant speech and awakened the inner hacker in the audience.
The UCC Executive Director Mr Godfrey Mutabazi in his speech welcomed the guests and assured the audience the UCC is committed to advancing the industry and was impressed with all the nominations. He thanked all sponsors of the event that included, MTN Uganda, Airtel, Huawei Uganda, Daily Monitor, Makerere University School of public Health and DHL .
“A hacker is someone who gets unauthorised access to your girlfriend“
Said MC Dr Mich reading out some of the on social media comments after Microsoft’s Ivan Lumala gave a motivational keynote speech about the different types of hackers. One of the event’s key judges, Dr FF Tusuubira in his speech said
[signoff predefined=”Movie Review Signoff” icon=”icon-username”] Uganda cannot be sustainable if we import everything we use, I normally make a joke at an audience like this and say, friends supposing they said all of you discard everything that is imported from your person; this place will be full of naked people with no phones and no computers and that is a fact. This is because we import everything we use and yet we think we are developing, we cannot develop unless or young innovators innovate.
Dr FF Tusuubira
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The further threw more light on how the winners were chosen, and pointed out that as judges they were looking for that unique spark of innovation with a wide breaking impact which is sustainable.
Reading the message from the ICT minister, Mr of State for ICT Hon Nyombi Thembo congratulated all entrants for this year ACIA awards and commended them as outstanding for using their ability and turning ideas into innovations.
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Back in the day sophisticated gadgets were seen in James Bond Movies, today we have smart everything; cities,TVs, phones, fridges, house security systems and even now wearable devices like watches and glasses. You can now have your own private network a personal internet in your own home.
ICTs are a key component of science, technology and innovations portfolio that is driving this change, ICTs have themselves been recognized as essential ingredients for any society to achieve or experience any economic growth and development. We as government of Uganda acknowledge these innovations as evidence in the national vision 2040.At the ministry level we are seeking to create a knowledge base where ITCs in Uganda will be integrated in all situations of life. Simply copying what others have done without adjusting them to our particular environment and our specific needs shall not deliver the desired outcomes.
ICT State minister, Hon Nyombi Thembo[/signoff]
THE WINNERS & PRIZES
[label variation=”label-success”]Business Excellence Award [/label]
Islamic University in Uganda (Trip to GSMA)
[label variation=”label-success”]Digital Content Award[/label]
Pearl Guide Uganda Limited ($10,000)
[label variation=”label-success”]ICT for Development Award[/label]
Barefoot Law ($10,000)
[label variation=”label-success”]Service Excellence Award[/label]
Beyonic Ltd (Trip to GSMA)
[label variation=”label-success”]Young ICT Innovators Award[/label]
a. Rising Starts:
College Rising Stars ( 2 state of the art laptops)
b. Uganda’s ICT visionaries:
No one took this award home, but the judges appreciated the work done by Team Vuga a start-up incubating at Hivecolab, who were given Uganda Shillings 7,500,000.
[label variation=”label-success”]Judge’s choice awards[/label]
[label variation=”label-success”]People’s choice awards[/label]
Hyphen, the makers of Matibabu and now developing an early warning breast cancer detection system called BreastIT.
. The event was graced by the ICT Minister of state){kind=link}