On the dates of August 2nd and 3rd, 2023, the Presidential CEO forum hosted the 4th BI-Annual Private Sector CEO’s Retreat at Kiira Motors Plant in JI
On the dates of August 2nd and 3rd, 2023, the Presidential CEO forum hosted the 4th BI-Annual Private Sector CEO’s Retreat at Kiira Motors Plant in JInja. The CEO forum started in 2020, with the previous PCF Forums that took place in Nali -Kyankwanzi, Ntungamo and Kyoobe. “PCF was set up as a directive of the President to bring together the captains of the industry and act as a checklist of government. The forum gives us an opportunity to work together with the public sector and engage government,” says PCF Vice Chairperson Mr. Emmanuel Katongole.
The first day of the PCF Forum in Jinja, started with a key note from Prof. Kwesiga of UIRI who has a profound wealth of knowledge and exposure in product development and research. In his key note, he emphasized that industrialization is synonymous with a country’s development but also emphasized factors for industrialisation as; appropriate technology, human capital, affordable finance, etc.
After the keynote, the panel discussion had interesting presenters one of whom was Mr. Kwame Rugunda, CEO Crypto Savannah who explains his ideas about e-mobility and its relationship to i4.0. In the next few years, there will be a 12.5% compounded annual growth rate of systems, services and data in the mobility industry. but WHY do you think so?
This is because of the way value is created in the mobility industry; the movement of goods, people and services. However, what is happening now is the evolution of business models. The current model is going to continue but will be compounded by digital solutions, shared services and mobility as a service. For example, we see layers of services with mobility service providers like Safeboda’s courier services, insights to people to influence decision making for example look at a notification here; “It is likely to rain today morning, you may need to order a safe car!”, etc. and that is how now new value is starting to be created
On the other hand, industry 4.0, which is taken from school of thought of the World Economic Forum and hinges on the fact that there was a first, second and third, so then we have the 4th industrial revolution. Progression of industrial revolutions started with a steam engine in 1712 that boomed business, electricity in 1752 that lit the world and powered mass production. Then the internet that began to come alive around 1970s which led to the fundamental and now industry 4.0 which comes in as a confluence of a series of technologies (leap of possibilities) like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Block chain, Big-data, Internet of Things (IoT), etc. As for the e-mobility industry, industry 4.0 is to help do much more particularly Vehicle to everything (V2E)
From this panel, among the CEO’s were, interesting submissions especially from the TechBuzz Hub CEO, Mr. Keneth Twesigye who asked three questions summarised here; Is Uganda investing in appropriate research? How is gov’t facilitating PPP especially with University Programmes? In addition, as gov’t invests in industrial parks, how do we encourage Ugandan CEO’s to see opportunities and invest in Startups? In addition, a few others that were about Electricity, Tax and Transforming existing second hand vehicles in Uganda to electrical powered vehicles.
Some of the Emobility players, particularly startups that graced the occasion include; Microfuse, Kaara, UgaBus, Ridelink, KaCyber, Zembo, (Treepz), TechBuzz Hub, Easy Matatu, etc.
The continuation of this article Part 2 can be accessed here
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