Fifteen years of making institutional data usable
For over fifteen years I have designed, built and supported information systems across agriculture, health, public service and capital markets — from the biggest bean crop database in Africa to the automated trading system at the Uganda Securities Exchange. My work sits where data engineering, project management and field reality meet.
I did not set out to build databases. I set out to fix a bottleneck.
I grew up in Uganda at a time when a working computer was a scarce resource and the information people needed to make decisions lived in filing cabinets. Studying for a Bachelor of Information Technology at Makerere University settled what I would do about that.
My first job as a software engineer taught me to ship. My second, at the Uganda Securities Exchange, taught me what happens when a system that a market depends on fails at nine in the morning. Everything since has been shaped by that combination: build fast enough to be useful, carefully enough to be trusted.
The through-line across research institutes, ministries and exchanges is the same problem in different clothing. An institution knows things, but its knowledge is scattered across spreadsheets, legacy systems and individual laptops, and so it cannot act on what it knows. My job is to make that knowledge single, current and accessible — and to leave behind people who can keep it that way.
Quick Facts
Based in
Kampala, Uganda
Date of birth
20 February 1986
Current study
MSc Health Informatics, Makerere
Sectors
Agriculture · Health · Public service · Capital markets
Three phases of practice
Building software, learning systems
Started as a software engineer at Realtech Systems Limited, writing and maintaining systems including an automated university admission system, a donor aid management system and a performance indicator database for the road sector. Moved to the Uganda Securities Exchange as Information Systems Officer, where the stakes changed entirely: an automated trading system, a central securities registration rollout, an IPO application platform, and a migration of over 30,000 investor records.
Research data at continental scale
As Database Manager at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (now the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT), designed and implemented the biggest bean crop database in Africa for the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance, stood up an institution-wide ONA server for ODK data collection, and trained research staff across 32 PABRA member countries. Represented the African region on the CIAT ICT Steering Committee.
National platforms and health informatics
At ILRI set up the infrastructure for an open specimen bio-repository, built the Uganda office network from the ground up and delivered an institution-wide analytics platform. At Action 4 Health Uganda drafted the TeamUp data and security standards and onboarded 90 programme staff. Today leading national digital platforms for NITA-U, the Office of the Prime Minister and line ministries, while completing a Masters in Health Informatics at Makerere University.
What I believe about building systems in this context
The system has to work in the field, not the demo
A data platform that only works with reliable power and fast internet is not finished. I design for tablets in bean fields, satellite offices on VPN and staff who will use the system long after the project closes.
Data outlives the project that funded it
Metadata standards, open-access publication and clean migration paths are not overhead. They are the difference between a database and an archive nobody can read in five years.
Train the people who inherit it
Quarterly ICT training, written standard operating procedures, documented handovers. Every system I deliver comes with the people capable of running it.
Three pillars in detail
Data Systems & Databases
I design relational data models, migration paths and curation workflows for systems that hold decades of institutional knowledge — from the PABRA bean database covering over 1,000 varieties to investor records at the Uganda Securities Exchange.
- Relational design on SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL
- Large-scale data migration and validation
- Metadata and data-security standards
- Open data publication (CKAN, Dataverse)
Analytics & Decision Platforms
I lead the development of dashboards and statistical systems that harvest data from disconnected internal systems via APIs, materialized views and flat files, then turn it into something a decision maker can act on.
- API and materialized-view data harvesting
- PowerBI, Tableau, R and Python analysis
- Machine learning and predictive analytics
- Reporting engines and visualization design
ICT Infrastructure & Delivery
I have built office networks from bare walls up: LAN design, server rooms, CAT6 upgrades, Active Directory, VPN links to satellite offices, antivirus and SSL disaster-recovery sites.
- LAN design, server rooms, structured cabling
- Active Directory, VPN, firewall configuration
- Disaster recovery and business continuity
- Project management, business analysis, UAT
Five reasons the work gets done right
Fifteen years across four sectors
Agriculture, health, public service and capital markets — shipped in all four, and knows how differently each one defines "done".
Works both ends of the stack
From CAT6 cabling and Active Directory to predictive models in Python, very few engagements need someone to hand off between the two.
Government and donor delivery experience
World Bank-funded DRDP, UDAP-GOVNET, CGIAR programmes. Understands procurement, reporting and the compliance layer around the code.
Continent-scale training record
Field teams in 32 countries, 90 programme staff onboarded, quarterly institutional training. Adoption is part of the deliverable.
Documented, auditable, handover-ready
Data standards, SLAs, security policy updates, UAT leadership. The paperwork that keeps a system alive is part of how it's built.
What colleagues say
“Innocent set up the data infrastructure our bio-repository work depended on, and he did it in a way that field teams could actually use.”
Dr. Kristina Roesel
Senior Scientist — Animal and Human Health, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
“The PABRA database is the reference point for bean research in Africa. Innocent built it and kept it credible across 32 countries.”
Mr. Leroy Mwanzia
Head of Digital and Data, International Potato Center (CIP)
“He is the rare engineer who is as comfortable in a server room as he is presenting delivery risk to a steering committee.”
Mrs. Julian Ahebwa
IS Business Solutions Coordinator, Total Energies E&P Uganda