Entrepreneur Revitalizes Transportation on Lake Victoria
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This is part of a series about African-born entrepreneurs.
By Kathryn McConnell
Staff Writer
Washington - Lake Victoria had been the home of bustling water ferry
traffic that connected Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. But over recent decades, the
ferryboats aged and the traffic dwindled.
South Africa-born shipbuilder Robert Smith has set out to bring the traffic
back. In 2008, Smith, who lives in the United States, registered EarthWise
Ferries Uganda Ltd. to create a profitable lake transportation system. His goals
were to employ local builders to construct fast, safe and environmentally
responsible ferries that would efficiently move people and goods throughout the
Lake Victoria region. He aimed to bring in additional business to the local
communities on the lake by boosting tourism.
In 2010, EarthWise was awarded $100,000 from the African Diaspora
Marketplace competition sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International
Development and the Western Union Company. EarthWise was one of 14 African
business ventures to receive an award that year out of more than 700
entries.
The EarthWise team includes Ugandan, South African and American experts in
business management and is led locally by Ugandans Calvin Echodu and Anthony
Esenu.
In May 2011, EarthWise launched its first ferry, the MV Amani, connecting
Kampala with the SseSe Islands in Lake Victoria. (In Swahili, Amani means
peace.) Today, an estimated 1,600 people move from Kampala, Uganda, to Mwanza,
Tanzania, daily.
In the coming weeks, EarthWise expects to launch a second ferry. Like the
first, it will be a two-level vessel outfitted with a state-of-the-art global
positioning navigational system and sophisticated communication equipment to
keep it on course and aware of safety issues relevant to passengers and
crew.
"The ferries will restore and create a vibrant economic corridor that will
in turn create jobs and uplift the poor," Esenu said.
"The focus of EarthWise Ferries Uganda is to rebuild infrastructure," Smith
said. "By rebuilding water transportation, we hope to energize rebuilding of the
rail sector, as one depends on the other in moving goods across the lake."
"The result should not only be many jobs created, but lower prices on the
dinner tables of everybody," Smith said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State.)
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