Arivia wins R750m Ugandan contract

By Dave Glazier for arivia.kom

Johannesburg, 16 Oct 2006

State-owned IT company arivia.kom has, through its subsidiary Face Technologies, won a contract to supply the Ugandan government with a population database register.

"Face Technologies has been awarded the Ugandan national population databank and identification system tender," confirms Tshepo Boikanyo, Face Technologies` marketing and sales manager.

Boikanyo, who adds that contract negotiations still need to take place, is unwilling to say when the contract was awarded, but it is understood to have happened recently.

Five-year contract

In arivia`s annual report, released last week, the company reveals it is a five-year project, valued at $100 million (R750 million).

Arivia, states the annual report, is committed to its objective of gaining a foothold in the rest of Africa, in line with government`s New Partnership for Africa`s Development imperatives.

In line with this objective, the state-owned company has, over the past year, restructured its African operations:

"During 2006, the process of learning and fine-tuning the business model for this challenging [African] environment continued. The African operations were integrated into niche markets, under the Face Technologies brand," reads the report.

Joint ventures

The population of Uganda is estimated to be about 28.8 million, making it the 39thmost populated nation in the world.

Former COO Hugo Knoetze, responsible for operations up until his resignation in late June, said in his section of the annual report that "a number of upgrades and maintenance contracts" were awarded to Face Technologies from existing clients on the continent and further afield.

"During 2006, the division continued to focus heavily on marketing its solutions in a number of central European countries and South East Asia in joint ventures with international technology partners," he added.

In July, arivia named Sipho Yeni (formerly managing executive of arivia.kom`s Focused Business Solutions division) as acting COO, assuming responsibility for operations from Knoetze.

No further details of the Ugandan contract have been made available.