Segment 1

TITLE

Spark Africa: New Business Perspectives

VOICEOVER

Spark Africa is always looking for new businesses and surprising initiatives. Today we report from Uganda.

TITLE

Uganda. Population: 31.9 million. GNP per capita: USD303. Internet penetration: 6.4 percent.

VOICEOVER

In the capital Kampala, large and small ICT businesses are founded every day. Could this be a new hub on the rise?

TONNY MUWANGALA [Spark Africa, Uganda]

In recent years, the ICT industry has been booming here and many ICT firms have popped out of the ground. Now many youngsters are aiming at a career in this industry. Today we visit two companies that give these youngsters an opportunity to grow.

VOICEOVER

Appfrica Labs and Software Factory are making programs for the web, computers, and mobile phones. This requires qualified employees, which are hard to find in Uganda. You only learn the trade properly by working in the field, but the training facilities have minimal computers.

JON GOSIER [CEO, Appfrica Labs]

The whole purpose of the company is to provide jobs for people who are entrepreneurial, and then help them as they go on to start their companies. We do lots of web projects, lots of desktop projects, lots of mobile apps.

RAYMOND RUGUNDA [CEO, Software Factory]

I decided that I wanted to do something about creating a knowledge industry in the country, and providing opportunities for young people to live off other things than farming.

EMMANUEL OLUKA [Employee, Appfrica Labs]

In the near future, I should be able to run my own company, and transfer the kind of information I've learned to new graduates, to people who are interested in doing the things that I am interested in.

JON GOSIER

I think that the biggest benefit of working here is just learning from each other, learning from other computer science graduates, learning from other software developers, as well as business skills, learning things like accountability, and just delivering quality products Those are things that will make anyone who works here successful over time.

VOICEOVER

Both of the ICT companies have had a lot of big customers from abroad in the past few years, including Denmark, the U.S., and the Netherlands. They grew up from having a couple of employees to now dozens. Now that the world market has taken a tumble, they're focusing more on the needs of the local market.

RAYMOND RUGUNDA

One of the big needs that there is to create an efficient kind of data collection, platforms where they can be used in healthcare, by community health workers. We provide other platforms, which help companies, improve their businesses and data collection and remove paper forms.

VOICEOVER

Running a commercial business, training new talent, and tackling local problems. It all seems to go hand in hand in Kampala.

RAYMOND RUGUNDA

Refocusing on the local market has been interesting for us, and very positive for us, because it felt much more relevant.