By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Sierra Leone’s technology
diaspora has pledged its expertise and support to the country’s growing open
source and Digital Public Goods (DPG) agenda, with members of Sierra Leoneans
in Tech committing to knowledge transfer and continued collaboration with
government.
The commitment was announced
at a UN General Assembly (UNGA) side event on Sierra Leone’s open source
journey, where Tamba Lamin, co-founder, former President and current board
member of Sierra Leoneans in Tech, delivered a statement on behalf of the network.
Lamin said Sierra Leone’s
technology diaspora already possesses much of the expertise required to support
the country’s development of open source systems.
The network brings together
Sierra Leoneans working in technology across different parts of the world, many
of whom have experience in open source development. Lamin himself has led an
open source group professionally for 12 years, while other members of the
network are engaged in similar work from the United States and elsewhere.
According to Lamin, Sierra
Leone now has technology professionals ready to share the experience and
technical knowledge required to deploy open source systems capable of serving
millions of users.
That expertise is being
channelled into the country’s DPG pipeline, with the aim of ensuring that the
digital systems Sierra Leone develops are strong enough to potentially serve
other African countries as well.
He described the development
as a moment the diaspora has been waiting for and said Sierra Leoneans in Tech
were responding to the opportunity created by government.
The group has committed to
supporting the process through knowledge transfer, continued partnership with
the Ministry of Communication, Technology and Innovation and a standing
commitment to give back to Sierra Leone.
