Ugandans have been advised to stop using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for gossiping and unproductive posts but use them for doing business.
While presiding over the 10th graduation ceremony for the Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology on Friday, Tonny Lule, the network operations lead for Google Uganda, said social media is not as new as people think but it is technology which has brought together communities which had been separated by geographical distances and brought them into a single group in the form of whatsApp groups.
“I have a friend who has an e-saloon on Facebook where she keeps posting the new hairstyles she has in her shop to her friends, and those who like the style call her to work on them from their homes,” he illustrated.
He proposed to the graduating student, to create a whatsApp group to keep in touch with the school and the alumni to keep updating each other about their progress and any opportunities as the easiest way to join the labor market because ICT has enormous opportunities which organizations have not yet seen.
“You do not need to go and work in a telecom company but just show an organization how they will benefit from ICT. Look at how KCCA has transformed because of using ICT to collect revenue from taxis,” he cited an example.
Information Technology and Communications minister, Frank Tumwebaze, who was guest of honor, challenged the students to think smartly advising that it is direction the world is taking. He cited Mercedes Benz manufacturer Daimler AG and Facebook as examples of companies the students should pick lessons from looking at the overhead costs involved in running such companies.
“I had never known that this institute exists until I was made minister for ICT. This is the institute Uganda needs. Companies like HUWAWEI, Sam Sung have become global brand names because of such institutions,” he said.
According to Godfrey Mutabazi the executive director Uganda Communications commission, government in the ICT and communications annual policy review, decided to elevate the institute into the national center for ICT research, development and innovations.