IoT in Africa: Uganda is a Tech-locked Country

“Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa whose diverse landscape encompasses the snow-capped Rwenzori: mountains and immense Lake Victoria”

Uganda might be a landlocked country in East Africa but with what I have here that you are about to read, you will see that Uganda has not been locked out of Technology. In the case of Uganda, I might not have much to say concerning IoT but I will like to write on how technology as a whole has helped Ugandans health-wise. Since the title of this series still remains “IoT in Africa”, I will not forget to give recommendations on how IoT can be further improved in Uganda.

The conception might have happened long ago but one can trace the wake in IoT in Uganda to 2015, during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. A company named Stripps Translational Science Institutes harnessed the power of IoT to easily detect Ebola; this they achieved by using integrated sensors to track heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate, and temperature. With this wonderful medical IoT, things took a new turn in Uganda not only in detecting Ebola but also in the awareness that tech can be employed to solve human problems.

As if that was not enough, m-Health came, an application to easily and cheaply diagnose malaria using mobile phones. All these and some other implementations form the basics of tech development in Uganda.

Why then has IoT hasn’t fully boomed?

While countries like South Africa had to start from the rock, places like Uganda had to work their way through the mud to the top in terms of IoT. If anything has been hindering IoT development in Uganda, it certainly would be internet penetration. It is recorded that only 41% of Uganda has access to the Internet and as the name implies, the “I” in “IoT” is an essential part of the system.

One important part then is that Uganda should start looking into widening access to the internet in order to foster IoT development.

Just like some other African Countries, Uganda should look into protecting and preserving their wildlife using IoT, with all these being said, industries and government are not left out.

As I said at the beginning, I might not have much to say concerning IoT in Uganda, but I will like concerned individuals to give more views on IoT in Uganda.

After four articles on IoT in Africa, Rwanda should be a better country to look at now