EAC Secretary General unveils mobile application to scale-up outreach and sensitisation on EAC integration
The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera, has unveiled an EAC Mobile Application whose main aim is to disseminate news, information and reports on a timely basis about the current state of affairs and development in the EAC.
Unveiling the mobile application version 3.2 at the 4th EAC Secretary General's Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Amb. Sezibera hailed the EAC Youth Ambassadors Platform, the architect of the application, for the brilliant innovation.
The Secretary General singled out Otim Brian Joseph, Jacob Eyeru, Leku Dennis and Esemu Herbert from the EAC Youth Ambassadors Platform-Uganda Chapter for developing the first-ever EAC mobile application product and making accessible globally.
The Secretary General disclosed that the application, also known as EAC in the Palm, was free, open and easily accessed mobile platform dedicated to easing sharing and disseminating EAC related information as well as tracking reports on development programs in the region. "This will increase information outreach and sensitization on the EAC integration process in real time," said Amb. Sezibera.
At the launch ceremony, Mr. Otim, the Head of the EAC Mobile Application Project at the EAC Youth Ambassadors Platform, outlined some of the benefits of the product, which include; prompt information outreach to all citizens of the Community and the rest of the world through individual smartphones thus advancing the "one to one" sensitization efforts of the Community; rebranding EAC on the social global network where information on EAC activities as updated on the website is made available to the public on a real time basis through the application; enhanced people-centred integration motive through the interactive chat module embedded in the application, and; increasing the involvement of citizens to informative capacity building discussions regardless of nationality, age, ethnicity, tribe and religion.
The Head of the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at the EAC Headquarters, Mr. Owora Richard Othieno, is excited that the Secretariat has endorsed the application because "the world today has high-tech information dissemination channels to fast-track market and stakeholder interactions. To this end, technological innovations are being adopted at an unprecedented scale and speed, particularly by over-the-top players and this should be no exception for the EAC Secretariat."
Present at the ceremony were; Dr Ramadhan Mwinyi, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East African, Regional and International Cooperation, Tanzania; Hon. Jesca Eriyo, the Deputy Secretary General (Productive and Social Sectors) at the EAC Secretariat; the German Ambassador to Tanzania and EAC, Amb. Egon Kochanke, and Mr Charles Njoroge, Deputy Secretary General (Political Federation).