CEO Today - March 2023

What does the East Africa Regional Integration mean to you and the industry as a whole? The establishment of the community through the East Africa Community (EAC) Treaty of 2000 was a huge opportunity for the industry and trade in the block generally. Although full integration is still not yet realised, when one looks at the four pillars of EAC regional integration and achievements so far generally, the spirit behind is to eliminate trade barriers and facilitate the growthof sectors and the industry. It relaxed restrictions on some key factors of production like labour movement within the region and for enterprises, this is significant in bridging the labour and capacity gaps as businesses can attract specialised skills which are non-existing or are not yet developed in the domestic markets. It also reduces the overall cost of labour as a factor of production and hence, boasts production and enterprise profit. In addition, the integration comes with expansion and opening of new markets within the region. The entry of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the block for example ultimately increased the market size significantly. Relatedly, it provides businesses with a convenient platform and environment for partnership and synergising on mutual areas of benefit in the industry and reaping other non-economic benefits. The integration is improving domestic market efficiency and enterprise competitiveness as the industry benefits from shared costs of public goods or common infrastructure projects like public transport, energy, and ICT infrastructure. What are your biggest goals for the future? The priority for the first 5 to 10 years is to focus on three strategic areas. The first is to deepen and consolidate GEO-MIK’s domestic and international competitiveness and establish our global footprint in the industry. Secondly, I’d like to motivate, empower, and uplift hundreds and thousands of Ugandan and African Youth startups through an Incubation, Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation Program. The third is to scale up geoinformation technologies to improve Agriculture productivity in Africa and scale to other diverse sectors like oil and gas.

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