Government launches startup academy to support young innovators

Government through the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) and partners has unveiled the youth start up academy project which is designed to support young innovators.

The project which will be implemented by Hive Colab in different parts of the country will train more than 1,000 young entrepreneurs across the country in different technical and business skills.

The project provides an opportunity for Ugandan young entrepreneurs to grow in the global market.

The NITA-U executive director, Dr. Hatwib Mugasa said the support will centre on providing connectivity, infrastructure and guidance to support the young innovators in a more sustainable way.

“This partnership is also going to provide some financial support to youth startups. They don’t necessarily need to be IT centric, we know that every aspect of the economy has an IT component in it. This academic is going to provide support to them,” he said.

Mugasa explained that the initiative will help to support young innovators to break through to the international level which has been the major issue for local innovators.

“They will be guided on the exact technology that they will need to develop. We are not developing for the Uganda market, technology breaks boundaries, you don’t have any borders to cross,” he said.

Barbra Mutabazi, the executive director Hive Colab, said local innovators will no longer need to go to other countries to be able to build up something because their problems have now been sorted.

“We are dedicated to finding these innovators to make sure we give them necessary support. We are going to provide all the necessary tools to be able to manufacture some things locally. We are looking at helping local innovators to build local solutions that are going to support the growth of our economy,” she said.

She explained that they are also going to avail a computer lab to the innovators given the fact that most of the young people are unable to acquire their computer set.

“We shall help these local innovators to go at international level. We want young innovators to know what it takes to be able to export and the certification they need right from the start,” she said.