#CIO100EA: Fernando Wangila Head of IT at NTSA crowned CIO of the Year 2017

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA’s) Head of IT Fernando Wangila is the CIO of the year Award winner in the East Africa’s 2017 CIO100 Awards.

Themed as Digital Transformation, the annual CIO100 Awards ceremony was preceded by a two-day’s symposium attended by more than 400 senior IT and business executives who congregated to learn, share knowledge and recognize their peers who have performed well.

According to Dr. Joseph Sevilla, Director at iLab, a research Centre within Strathmore University. NTSA scooped the top accolade following its brilliance in implementing Transport Information Management System (TIMS). This is a self-help portal where any Kenyan can access any service offered by NTSA anywhere so long as they have internet connection.

“Partnering with CIO East Africa and the industry to evaluate the CIO 100 survey applicants was very exciting. iLab Africa, can attest that the projects submitted for evaluation were mind-blowing.” he said noting that there were a average of 190 companies that participated.

Dr. Sevilla said that all the six adjudicator were marveled with the high level of submissions forwarded by various corporate firms. He chaired the panel that included Dr. Caroline Kariuki, Dr. John Olukuru, Tim Oriedo, Rosemary Olale, Isaac Kigen, Dr. James Mwajagi and Dr. Nancy Njiraini.

“The overall evaluation of emerging technology presented during this year’s CIO 100 gave a reflection that they were not merely a conjured-up report but the survey represent a series of already rolled-out initiatives – in pure capital, time and energy – that have massive implications for the enterprise. ” Dr. Joseph Sevilla, Director iLab Africa, Strathmore University.

“We noticed that emerging technology isn’t merely a conjured-up report but they represent a series of already rolled-out initiatives – in pure capital, time and energy – that have massive implications for the enterprise. We noticed that emerging technology isn’t merely a conjured-up report but they represent a series of already rolled-out initiatives – in pure capital, time and energy – that have massive implications for the enterprise,” said Dr. Sevilla.

Whether the discussion revolves around robotics or virtual reality, or what that would be analyzed as “augmented humanity,” the CIOs have proven that they have an obligation to keep their eyes on the technological horizon.

Laura Chite, CEO CIO East Africa congratulated the NTSA Team for scooping the 2017 and in the overall adding value in Kenya’s transport system by effectively rolling out the TIMs project.

TIMS was envisioned in 2008 by a multi-stakeholder group led by the Ministry of Transport through a multi-agency initiative to enhance road safety on Kenyan roads. The main aim was to implement an internet and mobile technologies enabled Transport Integrated Management (TIM) system to leverage the economy and scalability of today’s sophisticated enterprise architectures to meet its needs.

Once implemented, the project is expected to provide the Ministry as well as the stakeholders with a foundational technology platform that can be leveraged to improve service delivery to the public, law enforcement agencies as well as other attendant businesses.

TIMS has been serving to: Eliminate fraud and corruption in the transport sector, provide a single source of information on road transport data, improve on compliance with traffic rules and enforcement and Improve access and security to information relevant to the transport sector

The project is expected to take four years. When completed, an Intelligent Traffic Management system will help law enforcement agencies to de-congest the roads with the aid of machine readable number plates and cameras on the highways, which are integrated into a central Database. Both the Police and the Judiciary will be able to instantly ascertain the validity of any driving license and know its history.

A citizen portal will be set up, and members of the public will be able to validate their documents through SMS. The project is being implemented by Copy Cat Ltd and Sims Sift Technologies from China.

The East Africa CIO100 Awards began over seven years ago and evolved through a need to recognize and celebrate creativity, innovation and those pushing the bounds of creative excellence in all forms of emerging technologies.

More than 650 companies from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia participated in this year’s CIO100 competition, with entries from all the economic verticals including Education, Health, Logistics, Banking and Financial Services, Insurance and Agriculture.

The event was sponsored by among others SEACOM, DellEMC, CheckPoint, Forcepoint, CopyCat, Oracle, Sage, Telkom Kenya and Liquid Telecom.

Last year saw, EABL scooped the coveted award through its Distributor Management System DMS, a sales force solution that automates the distributor activities and enables the performance tracking of its entire sales force. The IT Director of IT at EABL, Mr. Kenneth Ogwang’ was crowned the CIO of the year 2016.

Below is the list of winners in the other categories:

Plus One

Financial Service Sector: Barclays Bank of Kenya

Manufacturing Sector: Longhorn Publishers

Media Sector Award: MultiChoice Award

Health Sector Award: Gertrudes Hospital

Public Sector: NSSF Uganda

Local Government: Kitui County

CIO Special Awards

Leadership Award: Huduma Kenya

CIO Green Edge Award: Sarova Hotels – The Sarova Project

Infrastructure Award: MultiChoice Kenya – Fundi Task