Lawrence Zikusoka is an ICT entrepreneur, who recently set up the first
802.11g WiFi eco-friendly, sustainable community telecentre at Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Uganda. The
telecentre is helping to safeguard endangered mountain gorillas and other
threatened wildlife species, improve human public health practices,
strengthen the local economy and emerging tourism industry, and raise
villagers’ and ecotourists’ environmental awareness.

The telecentre project was nominated as a Finalist in the Environment
category at the Stockholm Challenge 2006, the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) Best ICT Project in Africa in 2006, and also
featured on BBC’s Go Digital Technology program and CNN’s Focus on the
Internet.

He is Founder and Director of ICT for Development, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a grassroots non-profit organization with offices in Uganda and USA, that promotes conservation and public health by improving primary healthcare to people and animals in and around protected areas in Africa.

In 2005, CTPH in partnership with Uganda Communications Commission and the World Bank, Uganda Wildlife Authority, UNIDO, Coca Cola, Uganda Telecom, WYSE Technology, Makerere University, Multichoice, Datafundi, Wougnet,

I-Network and Caltex rolled out the telecentre project in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and have plans to establish a network of 10 or more telecentres in local communities living around conservation areas in
Africa.

Prior to CTPH, Lawrence Zikusoka held various consulting, policy advisory, management, sales and marketing and operations positions at the Council of Europe (France), United Nations (India and Kosovo), Nortel’s Research Triangle Park (USA), Simba Telecom, and the former Celtel (Uganda).

He was appointed Spokesperson for Africa on the United Nations’ World Summit Award 2003 and served on the Grand Jury to select the best e-content and creativity products from 168 countries around the world that
were showcased at the WSIS in Geneva.

Lawrence holds a M.S. in Telecommunications from the State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT), USA.