Private sector operators in the ICT sector from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan recently came together seeking to be included in the ongoing Northern Corridor Integration Projects Initiative. Under the umbrella body Northern Corridor Technology Alliance, the operators are seeking to take lead of earmarked ICT projects without foreign involvement. The New Times’ Collins Mwai spoke to the coordinator of the alliance, Robert Ford, who also serves as the vice-president of the Private Sector Federation ICT chamber.

Below are the excerpts;

This is the first time we are seeing the regional private sector players come together pushing to be included in the Northern Corridor Integration Projects; how did this come to be?

The alliance was formed against the background of the 10th Northern Corridor Integration Project heads of state summit which took place in Kampala last month. At the summit, there was an attempt to forge potential public-private partnerships with the regional private sector, not only in the ICT sector, but also in other areas. We organised ourselves as the ICT chamber of the region to undertake the implementation of all the earmarked ICT projects in the Northern Corridor Integration Initiative without any foreign support or involvement of foreign players. We have the skills and the capacity to respond adequately and efficiently.

We went forth with the commitment we had made to the heads of state by convening the meeting that formed the Northern Corridor Technology Alliance. The alliance has a specific mandate to be involved in responding to the earmarked projects in NCIP and at the same time look beyond the projects to inform the implementation of the projects. We seek to be recognised by the four Northern Corridor countries as the private sector body implementing the joint project.

What do you hope to bring on to the integration process?

We are providing partner states with access to the private sector; we are setting up a credible body which is set to act as a window where governments can access members of the private sector with skills and capacity.At this level in the implementation process, the government has no choice but to work with the private sector, the projects being undertaken demand financing, credible skills, standards and research and development. The challenge cannot be handled by government alone.

The Northern Corridor Integration Projects require huge financial investments and skills, can members of the private sector provide these?

It is high time the population of the region began to believe in the capacity of the region. It is time for the mindsets of private sector players to change to believe that they have the required capacities. Of the 13 earmarked NCIP projects, none is entirely new to the region.

Money is not actually a problem; when you look at the financial institutions in the region, they have the capacity required and are ready to work with us. They are all talking big sums. What may be a problem but will be discussed is how do we structure revenue sharing streams between government and citizens so that the private sector can be able to get their return on investment and make profits because they have to get back to their shareholders.

That is part of the alliance’s mandate; to build mechanisms that are acceptable to both parties.You say you have the capacity – finances and skills, what could have been the reasons that led to major regional projects being contracted to foreign firms?

In the past, the level of technology innovation was not very high. Today, we have people in this region heavily involved in technology and innovation. We also have regional governments supporting the development of the information communication and technology sector. Looking back, very few countries in the region, if any, had ministries of ICT about 10 years ago.

It could also have been because technology was not within our culture; recently we have taken it up as an enabler in many sectors. We now see it as a necessity to provide basic services to the general public, making it an important part to the society.

Time has come when innovation becomes the driving force behind the solutions being developed. We are beginning to develop solutions that are relevant to our challenges and goals. We may get challenged, but let the challenges inform the kind of solutions we develop.

That said, there are areas where we will require to import technology.

How has the alliance been received by the governments implementing the Northern Corridor Integration Projects?

The political will is very positive. When we called upon them as we were setting up alliance, they responded in support. We have been working with the national coordinator’s office from when we started the initiative. We hope that they can work with their counterparts in the region to be able to provide the same support to other countries in the region. If the alliance works as it is supposed to, the governments of the NCIP will find the technological solutions sought.

Governments are also supportive to the alliance as it can reach areas and provide services that the government would not.

It has been said that doing business with the government can be difficult and tedious at times; will you address this too?

We are trying to sign an MOU that outlines the cooperation framework. Part of the MOU states that we would wish that the tendering process be scrapped; we are proposing that the projects be put in one basket and handed over to the alliance, who will then share it among themselves. We will follow the standards set by the government.

That way, we will work as partners of the private sector to deal with emerging challenges.

We have done that in the past in our relations with our respective governments.

Rwanda and the rest of the region have increasingly become attractive to ICT investors from across the world; what is being done right?

The attractiveness could be largely due to the dynamism of the sector. Most investors in the sector want to ride the quick winds, they are willing to put in their money if there is a promise of quick returns.

This region has been termed fertile for several reasons, including the youthfulness of a majority of the population. It is among the regions that has promoted technology innovation more than elsewhere in the world.

These can be demonstrated through initiatives such as the innovation hub run by the private sector, which enables young people develop their ideas into fully fledged businesses that can have an impact on the society; we already have some success stories.

Few years back, there were complaints by entrepreneurs in the ICT sector that financial institutions were hesitant to fund their projects. As an operator in the sector, is this still the case?

It is true that in the past it was hard for technology entrepreneurs to acquire loans from the bank due to lack of understanding of the business models in the technology sector. But as time goes by, more banks are beginning to realise that the sector is productive just like the service sector. Because of that, there is a very rapid switch; there is not as much hesitation to lend the sector operators as it was previously.

There was also visible hesitance by the various sectors to adopt technology as an enabler, has that changed?

There is more adoption of technology in traditional sectors than before because of the realisation on how much it can do as an enabler for efficient service delivery and improvement of quality of life.

The impacts of the adoption can be reflected by the improvement of the performance of the sectors that took up technology.

Competition has also sped up the process of adoption of technology as firms are increasingly trying to be efficient to improve the quality of their services.

As a member of the local private sector in ICT, what are your thoughts on the entrance of multinationals into the national ICT ecosystem? Will it ruin your businesses?

It is good in several ways. There is more revenue coming into the country, the employment levels go up, skills are developed and new technology is added into the ecosystem.

The setting has, however, got to be conducive enough and structured well enough that it does not suffocate the local industry and local innovations. It is important that the environment be level enough to ensure co-existence of local firms and multinationals.

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