Uganda is among the top 10 African economies that will be key players in the African Information and Communication Technology sector in the next five years, according to a new study.

The group is led by South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya while Uganda comes in the ninth position above Zimbabwe but below Angola.

The countries have been ranked by the Africa Business Confidence Index a survey conducted by Africa Business Panel among 800 business professionals from more than 30 African countries. The results are based on the purchase managers index methodology used globally.

The outcome of the business confidence index is consistent with the trust of the international investor community in Africa, according to Martin de Koning, a telecommunications consultant at NarrowMinds in Netherlands.

“This is attracting the attention of the international investor community who increasingly see Africa as ‘the last frontier’ for attractive growth opportunities,” Mr Koning who doubles as an executive on the Africa Business Panel said.
“Research and numerous survey results among the international investor community consistently indicate that investors expect over half of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world in 2011 to be African.”

Growth in Africa’s ICT sector has been accelerated in recent years due to improvements in infrastructure, the arrival of wireless access technologies like mobile phones and lower tariffs, according to the Africa Internet, Broadband and Digital Media Statistics report by researcher Peter Lange.

The growth of Uganda’s ICT sector has been attributed to its liberalisation by the government in 1996.The liberalisation policy has attracted Foreign Direct Investment and market competition among players.

The main drivers of the sector include; telecommunication companies; including MTN, Orange Uganda, Warid and Airtel Uganda. Others are smaller Internet Service Providers like radio and television companies.

From: The Daily Monitor

Keeping call rates low and making handsets affordable are vital to the future success of Uganda’s telecoms industry. This is according to Shailendra Naidu, Warid Telecom Chief Commercial Officer.

Naidu says in order to increase penetration from its current 35% level – the cost of using mobile phones must continue to be reduced.

Naidu added that the continued high call rates and the overall cost of mobile phones in the country have limited the growth of the sector, but that with efforts by operators, the country can see a boom to the industry.

Naidu says if telecom operators are by the supported Ugandan government and the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), mobile penetration can grow by at least 1% monthly.

“A price ceiling affects affordability. Putting rates at Shs2 (less than UD$1) per second will make it too expensive for customers in this era of rising commodity prices. Market forces should be left to control prices,” says Naidu.
Uganda has been in the midst of continued price wars, which telecom analysts believe will assist with the growth of the industry.

A number of Uganda telecom operators believe the price war will adversely affect their profit margins.

“For the customer, it is a positive to have price wars because that means the costs they are charged is reduced and overall, companies should see it as a way of increasing new subscribers,” says Jonathan Yingale, a Kampala-based IT professional.

Google has identified a piece of malware that is redirecting unusual search traffic to its servers, prompting the company to warn affected users.

“Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers,” security engineer Damian Menscher wrote on the company’s blog.

“After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software.”

The malware has affected an unspecified number of users, but apparently it was enough for the company to announce that they will be displaying a “prominent notification” at the top of google search results to anybody they believe is infected.

“This particular malware causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called ‘proxies.’ We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections.”

Google has never used its search engine as a massive malware warning system for users, although it did accidentally mark every website on the web as harmful in 2009.

Orange Telecom has moved to end the scratchy sounds a number of clients experience during voice calls; they have launched a product that will make calls sound crystal clear.

Henceforth, one will not feel the burden of screaming down the streets while walking along a noisy street with this product. Instead, Orange Telecom’s HD, according to a company statement, “allows you to have a conversation which is so natural that it sounds like you are in the same room as the person you are talking to. Shouting down your phone when you are somewhere noisy will be a thing of the past with HD Voice.”

This is the first time such a product is being launched in Sub-Saharan Africa, notes the statement. The product comes at a time when Uganda’s mobile phone network is getting clogged up, as companies compromise the quality of sound at the altar of signing up as many clients as possible.

Clients who wish to enjoy Orange Telecom’s HD product need to have an Orange HD mobile phone and Orange’s 3G network coverage. Orange is already selling phones that are HD compatible: the ZTE F160 and the LG Saffron.
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators.

Telkom Kenya has made changes to its board of directors with the appointment of Eddy Njoroge as the chairman of the board. Njoroge, who is currently the Managing Director of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and the Chair of the Nairobi Stock Exchange, joins the board of Telkom Kenya as a nominee for France Telecom – Orange.

Commenting on this appointment during the unveiling of the new chairman at Orange’s headquarter in Nairobi, France Telecom-Orange’s Vice President for East Africa, Michel Barré, says that Njoroge brings in new energy as well as immense executive and corporate governance experience to the board at a time when the company is strengthening its leadership and bolstering its provision of quality voice and data services.
“I am very glad with this appointment, more so at this determining point for the company.

In the past three years, Telkom Kenya has overcome several business challenges and I am confident that it is now well poised to take on an even more significant leadership role in Kenya’s telecommunication market as well as develop into a regional hub for Orange in East Africa,” says Njoroge, who served in many companies such as a Director of Stanbic Bank Kenya, Real Insurance Company (EA) Ltd and Proctor & Allan (EA) Ltd.

He is also the Chair of the Investment Committee of Aureos East Africa Fund, a $40 million Private Equity Fund set up in 2002 by CDC, Norfund, IFC and other investors those targets SMEs within East Africa. Njoroge, who holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) Degree from Makerere University, is also the recipient of several awards honoring his contribution to industry development.

Key among these is the Ordre National du Mérite from the President of France, awarded in April 2006 in recognition of his contribution to the transformation of the energy sector. He has also been conferred the Order of Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS), Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki.

At a Pan African level, Njoroge is the President of the Union of Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa (UPDEA) and Chair of the Kenyan Chapter of the World Energy Council.