By Joseph Mbazzi Muguluma (MMJ Immanuel Ben Misagga)
I am not merely ashamed. I am angry.
Angry, yes—but with a smile, because sometimes the absurdity of our national contradictions is almost too much to comprehend.
We produce degrees at the speed of a Concorde jet. We celebrate First Class graduates every January.
We have thousands of ICT professionals, engineers, researchers and PhDs.
Yet, when confronted with the challenge of developing a sophisticated tracking system, we appear ready to spend $30 million importing the solution.
Seriously?
After three decades of investing in Information Technology at Makerere University, are we saying Uganda cannot design and build a world-class tracking platform?
If that is indeed the position, then perhaps the problem is not a shortage of brains. It is our failure to trust, finance and commercialise those brains.
$30 million should not leave Uganda
A $30 million tracking project should be an opportunity to create an indigenous technology industry—not another procurement contract for a foreign company.
That money could establish a national technology and innovation laboratory under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, bringing together Ugandan software developers, electronics engineers, universities, start-ups and established technology firms.
It could fund modern engineering workshops, train thousands of young Ugandan programmers, strengthen local manufacturing and create intellectual property that Uganda could eventually export across Africa.
Instead of buying a finished system, why not build one?
The fundamental components of a tracking ecosystem—devices, connectivity, software, mapping, data management and command-and-control infrastructure—are not beyond the capabilities of Ugandan engineers.
What we lack is not necessarily talent.
What we lack is the confidence to put that talent to work at scale.
The Makerere question
Makerere University has produced generations of engineers, computer scientists and researchers.
But what happens after graduation?
Too often, we celebrate academic achievement without creating a serious pathway from university research to commercially viable products.
We have brilliant students writing impressive dissertations, publishing papers and collecting degrees, while government continues importing technological solutions that could, at least in part, be developed locally.
That is the contradiction we must confront.
A university should not merely produce graduates.
It should produce solutions, companies, patents, products and industries.
Uganda must move from celebrating knowledge to commercialising knowledge.
The economics make the question even bigger
Consider what $30 million represents in Uganda’s innovation ecosystem.
It could finance thousands of scholarships and practical technology apprenticeships.
It could establish advanced electronics and software laboratories. It could support local manufacturers and technology start-ups.
It could create a national tracking command centre and develop an ecosystem around vehicle tracking, logistics, security, fleet management and smart mobility.
And if the resulting technology worked, Uganda would not have to stop at the domestic market.
The opportunity would be East Africa.
Why should Uganda merely be a consumer of tracking technology when it could become a producer and exporter of it?
Look at Latvia
Latvia offers an important lesson.
With a population of roughly 1.8 million, the country has produced globally recognised technology companies such as Bolt, while Skype was also developed by engineers with strong links to the Baltic technology ecosystem.
The lesson is not that Uganda should copy Latvia blindly.
It is that population size is not a sufficient excuse for technological dependence.
Innovation begins when someone identifies a problem and decides to solve it.
That mindset must become embedded in our universities, government agencies and private sector.
The real issue is trust
If government never gives Ugandan engineers an opportunity to build major systems, how will they ever acquire the experience required to build them?
You cannot demand that local companies become globally competitive while consistently denying them the large projects that would allow them to develop capacity.
This is not an argument for awarding contracts to Ugandan companies simply because they are Ugandan.
Competence must come first.
But where Ugandan firms and institutions have the capacity—or can credibly develop it through partnerships—they should be given a genuine opportunity to compete.
Government should set demanding technical standards, invite local and international bids, and make technology transfer, local skills development, intellectual property and long-term maintenance part of the equation.
Build the Son here
Uganda should stop behaving as though every sophisticated technological solution must arrive from Europe, Asia or elsewhere.
The brains are here.
The universities are here.
The young programmers are here.
The engineers are here.
The market is here.
What is missing is the boldness to connect these pieces.
So, before Uganda signs away $30 million for an imported tracking solution, let us ask one uncomfortable question:
Why can’t we build it ourselves?
And if the answer is that we genuinely cannot, then let us invest in the people and institutions that will make us capable of doing so next time.
Because the ultimate tragedy is not spending money on foreign technology.
The tragedy is spending millions importing solutions while our own engineers are sitting at home wondering when Uganda will finally trust them with the opportunity to build.
