Geodata portal will help East African development

Both projects will be hosted by Uganda, under the auspices of African Union Commission (AUC), and is a collaborative partnership between the British Geological Survey (BGS), Geosoft, IGS (International Geoscience Services), the Uganda Geological Survey and the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.

“Public-private partnerships are a vitally important way of ensuring the availability and accessibility of geodata, and creating added value to that data, to attract inward investment in the mineral exploration sector for Africa. Exciting time lies ahead where geodata is used to create wealth and to improve the quality of life of Africa’s people,” said Dr Peter Zawada, managing director of IGS.

The regional pilot project is the outcome of a workshop in Uganda in late March, which sought innovative solutions to Africa’s geodata shortfalls and drew expert participants from member states and institutions across Africa, Britain and Canada.

Workshop

Workshop discussions centred on: data requirements, data management and technology innovation. A business case was presented for a public-private partnership (PPP) model and capacity building.

Geosoft will collaborate with organising committee members, including the BGS and IGS, to implement the Uganda geodata portal.

“Activation of Africa’s vast geodata resources, through multi-stakeholder collaboration, is key to unlocking its value for downstream economic and social benefit within the respective countries,” said Tim Dobush, president and CEO of Geosoft.

The workshop and pilot project are guided by the aspirations and principles of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) and Agenda 2063, which recognises geodata as an imperative for future development of Africa’s extractives, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, infrastructure and tourism sectors.