www.ceotodaymagazine.com 26 26 a garage, GEO-MIK has emerged as a fully-fledged innovative and integrated brand in Uganda with a competitive regional and international focus. The company specialises in geo-information services, remote sensing and earth observation, natural resource assessment, spatial planning, land degradation and productivity monitoring, ecosystem mapping, air born surveys, feasibility studies, baseline surveys and hazard risk assessment. Anchored by a five-year strategic plan, the company is focused on offering quality and cost-effective services while adapting to the changing technology and emerging complex and dynamic business needs of the 21st Century. GEO-MIKs mission is to appropriately and effectively deliver cutting-edge geo-information technology, land and spatial development solutions that meet the multiple goals and objectives of our clients inspired by our vision to become an international pillar and hub for geo-information technology, land and spatial development solutions in Africa. The history of GEO-MIK is the typical story of any small startup in Africa. The beginnings, initial operations and development stages were an uphill task for several reasons including access to capital and credit. I also needed to defeat a common stereotype - that you can never start and succeed with your idea or any business venture unless you are from a privileged family, supported by the government or have powerful connections. Later, I realised it is never essentially so. I needed to start anyhow. Along its growth path, the firm closed and reopened several times betweenOctober 2008 and 2009 until, January 2010 when it re-established at the “garage” in Namirembe, Kampala. Inspired by the vision, immediately, there was a need to document, incubate and innovate the initial business concepts, craft content, originate templates, scope service and product portfolios. After competitively securing the first, second and third government tenders in 2010, 2011 and 2012, things started to look up slowly. We moved operations to a more spacious office in 2013 and later in 2015 because there was a growing need to progressively upscale and restructure our operational capacity. Six years later, propelled by the quest to reinforce and consolidate effectively GEO-MIK’s growth and reposition our business for the regional and international agenda, it became necessary to relocate our office to the city of Entebbe, so we can be close to the Entebbe International Airport. This also demanded to upscale and add holistic value to the business - to evolve GEO-MIK from a firm to a limited liability company and to realign our product and service portfolios to the emerging domestic and foreign markets. For over a decade now, GEO-MIK has seen sustained domestic growth and has expanded its territorial footprint from project work to 15 countries in Africa, including Uganda, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire. Tell us about your background and the key events that shaped you. Over 40 decades ago, my parents found their way from the original ancestral District of Arua, currently Maracha to the Southwestern District of Hoima, where I was born. Growing up as an underprivileged child to parents with no formal employment was bound to directly affect my early childhood opportunities, especially education and other necessities of life. Despite the currently existing free government education, at our time, the program was only rolled a year after our lot left primary school and so was with the free secondary education years later. This meant paying tuition to attain education at all levels. Enrolling in 1988, I trekked bare footed about 3 to 5km every day to a local nursery and primary school at Duhaga from where I completed THE CEO INTERVIEW
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz