THE CEO INTERVIEW The buyer/user needs affordable and unincumbered access to reliable and accurate GI, which in most scenarios is not the case. Efforts are needed to facilitate the sharing of available GI, publicising the existence of data and making it easily accessible but also eliminating barriers related to access, utilisation and dissemination. Cultivating intersectoral coordination in different mandated agencies handling GI is important too. We see duplication of efforts as several institutions across the divide repetitively collect and build the same datasets and this does not reach user groups - especially those who are looking for the data in formats that are useable for decision-making with ease. In addition, with the fast-paced GI industry, customers are finding it hard to adapt to market shifts and cope with emerging GI tools and approaches as existing ones become obsolete. Every single day, new data is created and thus rendering older data inadequate for today’s decisions and solutions. While more opensource GI tools have emerged and are freely available on the internet, depending on the scale of work, issues of resolution and validity will have a bearing on derived products and services. And what about the opportunities? There is immense opportunity in policy and legislation that mainstreams technological innovation, integrates geoinformation and develops policy guidelines that recognise geoinformation as an important asset for national development. This is in line with the Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI) Readiness Index - 2022 which advocates for different governments to create an integrated policy framework to ensure that their nations establish the environment for a digital economy and society that utilises location. It is essential to optimise and cultivate sustainable strategies and plans for the uptake of available and emerging GI and resources. For example, Uganda launched PearlAfrica Sat- 1 Satellite recently. How is the industry going to optimise the data resources to inform different decision-making processes? Therefore, we will need investment in the underlying physical and institutional infrastructure necessary for the enhancement of the technical capacities of staff and mandated institutions handling GI. I want to think that the private sector also could get organised to harness and optimise the existing and emerging opportunities in the industry because the private sector is a key strategic ally and driver of innovation and at the same time they produce data, consume or are end users themselves. The improvement and growing investment in ICT by the government cannot be underestimated across the region. Uganda has seen increased internet users growing to millions as well as internet penetration rates. This is good because data and internet access are critical components and enablers of effective GI utilisation and growth. In addition, the market and industry as a whole need to take advantage of the shift and digital transition across the industry to scale operational efficiency. Because the commercial GI and satellite industry has revolutionised the science of data acquisition and delivery to the end user and enabled access and utilisation of GI within the same platforms seamlessly and at affordable cost.
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