Kampala — There are many businesses opportunities that are expected to be available to the East Africans when the East African Submarine System (EASSy) is launched June next year.
"The major opportunities to be watched is the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) that has been dominated by Indians but now will be easily done by Ugandans and others in East Africa when the EASSy cable becomes operational," said the Chief Executive Officer of the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), Mr. Chris Wood.
EASSy is a 10,000-kilometre submarine cable system currently being constructed along the east coast of Africa while WIOCC is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for investment in the EASSy project and is jointly owned by 12 telecom operators in East, Central and Southern Africa.
"Business Process Outsourcing has been mainly done by Indians but the opportunity has come for East Africans because the region is strategically located in the heart of Africa and has got best educated people in information communication technology (ICT)," Wood told East African Business Week.
This was at a luncheon organised by the company for the media and the company's stakeholders held at Kampala Serena Hotel last week.
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He said East Africa is best suited for the PBO because of its good time zone for the Europeans and the United States of America (USA) which time is very different from India's.
Other sectors to benefit from the project include education. It will be cheaper to attend online courses whereby university professors can conduct lectures from anywhere. Telecom companies and internet service providers will also benefit by accessing cheaper and faster bandwidth.
"WIOCC is working with all universities in the world to ensure they are all connected to the Internet and lectures can be conducted on line," he said.
"In the health sector doctors can carry out operations with assistance of other doctors from other parts of the world online while laboratory tests can also be carried out in one country and sent to another country within seconds," he added.
Others benefits include establishment of electronic governments for efficient service delivery and increasing transparency in local governments.
Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Executive Director, Patrick Masambu said the landing of the EASSy cable will increase competition that would bring changes in tariffs, improve quality and choice for the consumers.
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