Young 24-year-old wins overall startup of the year award

UGANDA - Sumic IT Solutions is reaping big from being an Entrepreneur having won overall startup of the year award and the startup of the year in the tech category at the biggest fellowship of Uganda's innovators, Startups and entrepreneurs, commonly known as the "Uganda Innovation Week”. Sumic is a digital transformation consultancy and software development agency that provides cutting edge engineering solutions, helping companies, start-up enterprises and enterprise clients untangle complex issues that always emerge during their digital evolution journey.

It is from the above background that the Sumic IT Solutions owner has been invited to the University of Massachusetts which is home to many of the world’s leading scientific minds, and has a vibrant and dedicated community of faculty, researchers and students who develop world-changing technologies in diverse fields like engineering, life sciences, and health care. The university is committed to bringing these new ideas to life through patents and startup businesses based on inventions developed by students and faculty.

The biggest fellowship of Uganda's innovators, Startups and entrepreneurs, the "Uganda Innovation Week" took this week's center stage last month from 22nd-24th November 2022.

Previously, Kampala Innovation Week, the event recently underwent a major rebrand to include participants from across the entire country, acting as an intersection of ideas with opportunities, perseverance with recognition and startup founders with money and pledges of money.

Speaking of perseverance, Steve Jobs during one of his interviews spoke of the hustle of Startup founders, saying; "I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones is pure perseverance."

Organized by Startup Uganda, the Uganda Innovation Week rewarded this true perseverance and gave startups the opportunities to persevere even more. The event ran under the theme; Uganda’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Unlocking the Missing Links.

Despite the level of growth of the startup ecosystem here in Uganda, there are still a number of gaps to bridge in order to ensure the development of viable, market-ready enterprises and the ability of relevant stakeholders to adequately support said enterprises.

This article gives center stage the startups that participated, those that stood out, some new developments in the country's tech/startup field, and of course, where and how we can improve. So, let's cut to the chase.

Sharebility Uganda won the startup of the year award in the education sector. Sharebility Ug is a digital library crowd sourcing a vast pool of free open education resources plus premium content on sale.

Ezy Agric took home the startup of the year award in agriculture. Ezy Agric deals with information and service delivery to enhance small holder farmer' production and marketing activities through ICT and community based middle value chain actors.

Kreate Uganda was the winner of the startup of the year in the creative industries category. My Musawo won the startup if the year in health. My Musawo, which is Luganda for “My Doctor”, is a mobile app that gives Ugandans access to quality health care information, services and products.

Stanbic Bank won the champion of the year in the private sector award.

Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) took home the champion of the year in public sector award. Mastercard foundation was recognized for its efforts in the startup ecosystem as a development enabler.

Criticisms

The Uganda Innovation Week hasn't gone without its fair share of disgruntlement. A review of the event by Digest Africa, a provider of data and insights on investment into African startups says the event was a "road to mediocrity paved by pretenders".

In the not-so-kind article titled "The Uganda Innovation Week Was a Joke," retired founder, and now Editor-in-Chief at Digest Africa, Jonathan Ntege Lubwama rants at length how the "guardians of our startup ecosystem" cannot keep getting away with doing the bare minimum.

Lubwama elucidates on three important points;

1. The organizers need to decide if they are holding an innovation week or an SME summit.
2. Bigger is not always better
He writes; "The demand for bigger could be what drove the organizers to invite sponsors on board that turned what was supposed to be an innovation week into an NSSF Hi-innovator/JICA/Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESO) Week."
3. The topics, panelists, and moderators were mainly underwhelming.

Lubwama also goes ahead to suggest remedies to the ailments of the Uganda Innovation Week.