Ugandan minister: Africa needs to harness mobile tech

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Currently, mobile devices carry content in the English languagewith software that is not suited for people in this part of theworld; all of the services are borrowed and transplanted to work inAfrican environments.
Mulira spoke at a workshop on innovative mobile technology andservices for developing countries that attracted internationalexperts from academia, industry and public sector organizations,and addressed the issue of enabling policy that promotes the growthof mobile technology and services. Also under discussion was localcontent and language support, which is critical to reaching therural population.
Mulira said it was important to harness mobile technology andservices to promote a local mobile service and content providersector.
A number of mobile voice and SMS-based services have beenintroduced in the last few years, but more relevant mobile data andWeb-based services are needed to promote information access,communication and usage in sectors such as health, education,banking and payment.
Makerere University's faculty of Computing and InformationTechnology (CIT) is involved in a number of activities in themobile sector, including research and software business incubation.CIT has established a research group in mobile computing, a mobilelaboratory with support of Nokia and proposed curriculum for amasters degree program in mobile computing and application software development.
Mobile phone operators must link up with educational institutionsto work together to harness mobile technology and services forsocietal development, Mulira said.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.