Pioneering Intelligent Transport Systems in Uganda, with Michael Wanyama

Hi #SmartCommunity friends, and welcome to our second Mobility March episode! In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I have a brilliant conversation with Michael Wanyama. Michael and I met at Smart City World Expo in Barcelona in November 2022 where his company Auto Safety Uganda won the Innovation Category of the World Smart City Award. In this episode Michael and I discuss his background in IT and automatic technology and why he’s so passionate about happy, healthy and inclusive communities. Michael tells us about the context in Kampala, Uganda, why it’s the best tourist destination in Africa and also about some of the challenges Uganda faces with traffic safety, vehicle reliability and air pollution due to lack of systems, skills, infrastructure and regulation. We talk about the many different areas of the community that transport impacts and the importance of supporting the community in the process of transitions to new and cleaner mobility options. 

Michael tells us about the projects they are working on, including upskilling mechanics, promoting gender inclusivity in the automotive industry and collecting data to support policy change in Uganda. We also discuss the problem of African nations having to ‘copy and paste’ solutions from other countries but finding they don’t work in the African context. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of great ideas and policies being stymied by the lack of resources and skillsets to implement the changes, as well as the need for community engagement, leadership and education to work together to solve these problems. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Connect with Michael on Twitter or LinkedIn

Follow AutoSafety Uganda on Twitter, LinkedIn or their website www.autosafety-ug.org  

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community 

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.