by Gugu Lourie
South Africa’s tech firm EOH is quietly tapping into the fastest growing industry of providing eGovernment solutions to support governments to provide public services online through one stop-platforms – an approach that makes it easier to access public services.
According to the United Nations eGovernment Survey 2016 this approach makes it easier for people to interact with public administration and get adequate and holistic responses to their queries and needs.
Encouraging innovation through e-government
In an effort to make public institutions more inclusive, effective, accountable and transparent, as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, many governments across the globe are opening up their data for public information and scrutiny.
Making data available online for free also allows the public – and various civil society organizations –to reuse and remix them for any purpose. This can potentially lead to innovation and new or improved services, new understanding and ideas.
Combining transparency of information with Big Data analytics has a growing potential. It can help track service delivery and lead to gains in efficiency. It can also provide governments with the necessary tools to focus on prevention rather than reaction, notably in the area of disaster risk management, argues the United Nations.
EOH making inroads into eGovernment
South Africa’s EOH is looking at e-participation as an opportunity to promote participatory decision-making and service delivery and diversify its revenue streams.
To increase its participation in eGovernment, EOH has concluded strategic investments in a Middle East entity.
The company announced on Friday that it has recently acquired 50% shareholding in:
- ASSET – based in Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia, which provides municipalities and national government departments with eGovernment solutions for Customer and Citizen Management solutions on mobile devices and the web.
- aSAY Group – based in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, which provides Smart Energy, Water and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to large Metros. Their solutions also include Traffic Management, Data Communication Management and Smart Grid technology solutions.
- Metro CIS – with a strong presence in Dubai and servicing their region, which provides solutions and IP products to utility companies and municipalities for Grid Management, Authenticity Management and Billing solutions.
- Virtuoso Consulting – based in UAE and Bahrain, employing 80 people, assists large energy utilities in the Middle East to modernise and implement world class best practice in utilities management.
The company said its eGovernment solutions are being used by the governments of South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia, Mauritius, UAE, Turkey, Ghana and Tanzania. EOH’s local government and utilities solutions are deployed in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Jordan, Kuwait, Argentina and Chile.
“The pipeline for EOH eGovernment solutions is very strong with large scale opportunities in East and West Africa, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia,” the company informed investors on Friday.
