Information technology skills development within Africa has received a major boost with the announcement of a joint initiative backed by the governments of Mauritius and Namibia. A joint IT company, supported by global IT players Sun Microsystems and Oracle, has been formed to further the development of IT in Africa.
The Namibian-based company SILNAM comprises skills and offerings from Mauritian IT company State Informatics Limited and Namibian IT solution provider Namtec Holdings.
"As Mauritius is a small island," says Taroon Japal, general manager of State Informatics, "we need to export our skills to the rest of Africa in order to grow our IT base.
"Namibia is the same size as Mauritius and with their need to import IT skills and our need to export them, it makes sense that we form an alliance," he says.
Mauritius aims to develop into an information-based economy, positioning itself as a regional IT hub, and an exporter of IT skills, not just textiles and sugar.
State Informatics will bring its consulting, project management, and software development skills, as well as Sun and Oracle technology to the table, and together with Namtec, will offer IT solutions to Namibia through SILNAM. "We will develop a skills competency centre, transferring IT skills to Namibia," says Japal.
"Our aim is to consolidate SILNAM in Namibia and then perhaps look further North in Africa. We will move people over from State Informatics to SILNAM as the need dictates," he says.
The government of Mauritius has a policy of expanding its economic space and is doing this through alliances with Namibia and Madagascar, with IT being a key component of this expansion.
"State Informatics, a government-owned yet privately run IT company, has done exceptionally well as a Sun and Oracle value-added reseller, so SILNAM, as an extension of Informatics has our full backing," says Ben Neveling, regional partner manager Africa at Sun Microsystems.
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