It was certainly an interesting day today. Brenda, Nicholas, and I met with four people from UNIDO to talk about InterConnection Uganda. They have been communicating with Fredrik Winsnes, CFU’s team leader who works at Microsoft, for the past few months, getting the scoop about setting up a refurbishing center in Uganda. UNIDO was quite thorough, asking questions about how we decided on our price for the computers, how our setup will work in the warehouse, our annual sales target, and whether we were providing other services in addition to selling refurbished computers (among many other questions).
Our UNIDO visitors:
I then hear from Hon. John about Microsoft’s announcement today that they were partnering with UNIDO to set up a computer refubishing center in Uganda: “According to reports, the scheme will first start as a pilot project in Uganda, and after two or so years, Microsoft would rollover the vision to other African countries.” Because, of course, “some entrepreneurs down there had already established basic computer refurbishment infrastructure and skills, the reason why UNIDO wants to capitalise on that.”
Oh boy, here comes the competition. But hey, we are the first.
This competition is good news, although when we first heard it we had our doubts. But look at it this way, it will certainly bring attention to the usefulness of refurbished computers, as most people here have no idea what a refurbished computer is. UNIDO will help us get that information out with their resources, and I and everyone else at InterConnection Uganda are really excited to see what will happen with this new “partnership”. And besides, the more the merrier. We’re here to bring IT to the people of Uganda, so let’s get to it.