SMEs urged to adopt digital technology or pay the price

Arthur Mukembo, Innovation Village's future lab lead, made these remarks during the meeting with the Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to sign a digital literacy memorandum of understanding.

The signing seeks to deepen the understanding of players, which, Mukembo said, as part of their work they had discovered that small businesses are reluctant to embrace technology and many are curious about what the transition is looking to achieve.

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“For different reasons, adoption [to technology] is slow or it’s not moving at the right pace as we think it should. There are certain barriers. But we think this will be costly in the long term,” he said, noting that they had also discovered that many small businesses are limited by the cost of devices that are necessary for the transition.

Hindrances

On the issue of technology cost, he said there is a need for a wider stakeholder engagement that would reduce the price of devices, which have been made expensive by a relatively unfriendly tax environment.

Speaking about the digital literacy programme, Mukembo also noted that it will seek to understand the landscape within which small businesses operate as well as get a proper picture of the use and adoption of technology in running small businesses.

“We want to understand what the gaps are. What Uganda needs to do to fully leverage opportunities in transforming the economy through small business,” he said.

Going digital or going dark

John Walugembe, the Federation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises executive director, explained that SMEs recognise that digital technology is no longer a choice, but a requirement for every business.

“Many SME owners don’t know how to use their phone to grow their business. A phone is a whole computer you can find all kinds of benefits for your business,” he said.