Press Release

The state of IT industry in Ug and how the COVID 19 pandemic has affected it.

By: Ms. Winfred Akello | CEO WACLOUD
The IT service Industry in Uganda more or less compared to other industry sectors have been affected by the pendamic Lock down measures.. Despite bearing essential gateways for businesses to operate during the pendamic, IT companies can feel the heat of price pressure to scale down to affordable products pricing, birthed by revenue loss due to the lockdown. Client bankruptcy and slower client decision making led by lower discretionary spends. In such times like this, IT firms may have to tweak growth strategies to focusing on affordable pricing from an expansion led one. On sensing the nervous consumer mood due to covid-19 outbreak and the challenging economic environment.

With Clients from Industries such as travel, Hospitality, airlines financial services to mention a few. Which have been directly affected by the panddemic I do believe that the Ugandan IT sector could see indirect impact from such economic slow down.

However , there is a silver lining for some IT firms are expected to scale up due to the increasing demands for online presence.It is for this matter that I.T operators shall strive and take a different direction to solve the world’s newest problem of social distancing. We shall begin to see more service demands in that direction.

In addition, since many companies are embracing the need for online presence, great opportunities have opened up especially in the increased demand for ecormmerce solutions for online shopping , Besides international operators like Alibaba, Amazon and ebay , but also locally companies like jumia, catalogueshoppers and safe boda. Have reaped big since the outbreak of the pandemic. There has been a great increase in demand for online shopping and home deliveries for locked up shoppers, A culture that may remain for good.
WA-PAKASA

Government ministries,departments and agencies (MDAs), have also increased their need for information and communications Technology (ICT) tools, to deliver their services to the masses.The ministry of health has embraced the use of social media to train the population on standard operating procedures(SOPs), and preventive mechanisms, while the ministry of Education is embracing online education platforms for students at home. The Innovators in the I.T sector may need to venture into more of financial inclusion services , This pandemic has uncovered the ills of trading with cash for being a high risk transmitter of the corona virus. And also boosts in agency banking.

The ministry of justice is embracing the use of video conferencing to conduct court sessions, while many churches and mosques have also turned to social media and live online feeds to conduct masses and prayer. In addition the entertainment industry hass also turned to live online concerts via you tube and facebook while many meetings are now being conducted via zoom, Microsoft teams and Google meet.
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