East African Business Week

 Kampala, Uganda-- Makerere University one of East Africa's oldest and prestigious universities is buzzing with innovations ranging from technology, mechanics and food science which is propelling it back to glory days.
 A university whose image has been tainted with annual strikes by lecturers and students has for the last four weeks been enjoying positive reviews on the electric car named Kiira EV that the university is said to have built. However the university students have been doing more than this especially in the ICT and Food Science colleges.
With Uganda's challenges and a growing demand for technology solutions, then the two colleges are probably becoming more relevant to Uganda.
"There is a lot that goes on at the University. The development at the University can propel Makerere as one of the top institutions in the Africa and beyond," says Prof. Vanansius Baryamureeba the Vice Chancellor Makerere University.
IT
The students in this college have been developing mobile solutions among others that can be used by government departments, agencies, companies and service providers in the private sector.
The students have built platforms that can be used to improve the delivery of Mobile Money, e-ticketing systems, provide farmers with information on current market prices for commodities and also be able to map community problems ranging from water among others.
The seemingly enthusiastic students are developing solutions for real problems and the team at the technology college can be commended for a job well done.
Mobile phone usage in Uganda is now at an estimated 14million users and with the demand for local content for local solutions, Makerere is making headway in this department.
The challenge for the students however, is how to make these solutions marketable so that they can be used. Marketable solutions can be monetized to in-turn create entrepreneurs who can be able to employ Ugandans.
Mobile Phone companies like Orange and MTN have been actively engaging the university on developing more content to be used on their platforms. Companies like Google and Nokia have also provided platforms that can be used to develop applications that can be used by Ugandans and with the people in the Diaspora.
Food Science
The School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-Engineering has started processing one of the most essential if not the most essential need for man, food. The college has been doing this for a while but they have not been provided with the fairest coverage yet their solutions are much more relevant to the ordinary Ugandan.
The students some of whom have graduated have ventured into processing canned food, snacks and juice among others.
In a country that food processing is needed to stimulate commercial agriculture, then the college would have created this incentive. Agriculture which is practiced by more than 65% of the population but only contributes less than 13% of the GDP requires a stimulus and with the growth processing then it would create the shift from dependency on imports and also boost the manufacturing sector.
This is also encouraging more youth to get involved in Agriculture in-turn creating a stimulus for the economy.
The students have also gone ahead to provide packaging solutions that use some of the environmentally friendly material that can conserve the environment.  
However the road is not well paved as challenges continues to show up. Processing is also still capital intensive and the entrepreneurial skills of some of the students are limited.  The students need to make sure they understand issues of branding and marketing so that they can survive in the marketplace.
It should also be noted that processing has also been met by the understandably stringent arm of the of the Uganda National Bureau Standards (UNBS), this leaves the students stranded because the bar is set so high. In Uganda, most start-ups are not known to survive their second birthday.
The Kiira EV
The excitement about this car is understandable and the students can be commended for a job well done but more questions can be raised on this car especially on matters to do with commercial production and intellectual property.  
Electrical engineering professor Sandy Tickodri-Togboa said the car charges for about four hours using 13-amps of current. And do a maximum of 80km at 200kmph and seats two people.
"If it went into commercial production, this car would cost about $10,000 to $15,000. A fair price compared to the electric cars in America and Europe," Tickodri-Togboa says. This car would be on the high end in terms of pricing which is not favourable for Ugandans.
The project was funded through the Presidential Initiative in which Ush25b was offered  to the college of engineering to boost technological research for about five years.
 If this is an innovation by Makerere University students, then they will to decide on whether its commercially realistic or it was just another glamour event that passed by and the whole country jumped on the bandwagon. The University says that they could go commercial once the Centre for Vehicle and Transport Research is built.