Hajat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeyiye-President Museveni is determined to Increase ICT network coverage, penetration and utilization for Social-Economic Transformation.
H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been at the forefront of leading the national effort to increase ICT Network Coverage, Penetration and utilization for social-economic transformation of Uganda.
Since 2006, He has steered effort for the formulation of policy, laws, regulations and strategy for the ICT sector in Uganda, to foster the achievement of national development goals. It’s therefore important for the Bazzukulu to appreciate the ICT Sector and what the Government of Uganda led by H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has achieved since 2006 when the Ministry of ICT was established.
NRM inherited a country where telephones were for the rich and services unreliable, yet they existed elsewhere in world. There was only one inefficient telephone company owned by the Government. In 2006, NRM recognised and pledged to prioritise and promote the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a tool and enabler of socio-economic transformation and development.
ICT is essential in improving national productivity because it has potential to make Government and business enterprises more efficient, effective and globally competitive. Ugandans are now spoilt for choice on which telephone or internet provider to choose. There are four telephone service providers and more than six internet providers.
Almost all Ugandan households have a mobile phone. Subscriptions have increased from 20.5 million in 2015 to 23.2 million in 2017 resulting in a teledensity of 66.9%. The number of internet users also increased from 6.2 million in 2015 to 9.8 million in 2017. This translated into an internet penetration rate of 25%. The importance of ICT has been amplified under COVID-19 driven lockdowns. During the period ICT was employed to deliver education, health, trade in market places and financial services. NRM will use ICT for e-education, e-security, e-governance, e-health, e-extension to deliver Government services better. Ugandan youth will be supported to innovate to improve ICT services across the country.
HEADWAYS/PROGRESS
The National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) has been extended to 483 Government sites and target user groups. Out of these 420 are using services over the NBI; the services include internet bandwidth, Integrated Financial Management Systems (IFMS), Data Centre, leased lines and dark fibre.
NBI extended to 49 districts out of 125, namely: Kampala, Mukono, Buikwe, Jinja, Iganga, Bugiri, Busia, Tororo, Mbale, Bukedea, Kumi, Soroti, Kaberamaido, Dokolo, Lira, Kole, Oyam, Gulu, Amuru, Kiryandongo, Masindi, Nakasongola, Luwero, Wakiso, Hoima, Kagadi, Kyenjojo, Kabarole, Kasese, Rubirizi, Bushenyi, Sheema, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Kabale, Lyantonde, Lwengo, Masaka, Rakai, Mpigi, Pakwach, Nebbi, Arua, Adjumani, Moyo, Koboko, Moroto, Katakwi and Kiryandongo. Furthermore, border posts of Mpondwe, Vurra, Oraba, Elegu/Nimule, Busia and Malaba have been connected to the NBI.
The price of internet for MDAs and LGs has significantly dropped, from an average cost of 1 Mbps/month for US$300 in 2015 to US$70 in 2018, as a result of completion of alternative routes to the sea cables through Mutukula and Katuna. The commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have accordingly slashed their prices for 1 Mbps/ month from an average of US$515 in 2015, down to US$237 in 2018.
ICT innovations have been streamlined by developing guidelines under URSB to ensure that innovators are rewarded for their creations and their intellectual property rights are protected.
The NRM Government has so far given Ush1.6 billion to support eight ICT Innovation Hubs located in Kampala and other regions (Mbarara University, Muni University in Arua, Makerere University, Innovation Village — Ntinda, Soroti University and Makerere University Business School). These hubs provide free work spaces (including laptops and internet) for the youth to develop their innovations. More hubs will be built in other regions.
Furthermore, The NRM Government is providing subsidised internet bandwidth to five Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) innovation companies: Cameo Tech, Techno Brain, Munu Tech, BDE Consults and Cayman Consults.
The National ICT Innovation and Incubation Hub at Nakawa that is currently under construction with support from UPDF Engineering Brigade will mentor and coach SMEs.
NITA-U is establishing the ICT Park on 17 acres in Entebbe, donated by the President of Uganda.
A BPO centre was developed at Statistics House in Kampala and is being run by a private sector company to offer call services. Furthermore, Government is offering incentives to BPOs.
Priority e-services have been identified, developed and are being rolled out in Government MDAs as follows; e-voucher, e-visa, Academic Information Management System (AIMS), e-tax, e-logrev, Prosecution Case Management Information System (PROCAMIS) and Online Wealth Declaration, E-Payment Gateway for managing electronic collection and disbursement of Government funds, Authentication gateway for secure access to e- Government services, SMS Gateway and mobile gateway implemented for simplified notification services and mobile accessibility for e-services, E-government procurement transparency within the procurement processes across Government,ETC.
The sector has conducted awareness drives such as the e-government Expo and Excellence awards to build capacity and ensure uptake of e-services. Awareness has been conducted in the areas of Cyber Laws, Information Security and e-government services.
The Government, through partnership with SIMI Mobile, established the first Mobile Phone and Computer manufacturing and assembling plant in November 2019 at the KIBP, Namanve.
The NRM Government has established over 1,040 school ICT laboratories intended to provide digital literacy skills to the communities and schools. An additional 47 labs are to be launched.
WAYFORWARD
- The NRM Government is extending the broadband infrastructure coverage countrywide and implementing last[1]mile connectivity (taking internet services to the entire country) to all key service delivery units such as schools, hospitals, police, tourism sites, districts to the NBI conducted. Take advantage of existing infrastructure by Government and private sector players to reach the last-mile connectivity.
- Provide communal broadband. For instance, transform all postal centres and community information centres into e-services delivery channels.
- Expand the Digital Terrestrial Television and Radio Broadcasting network countrywide using both satellite and terrestrial signals to ensure that it is accessible by all.
- Digitise service delivery processes across all MDAs and LGs through adoption of new ways of delivering services, re-engineering their business processes by ensuring that they are simplified, streamlined, optimised and develop e-solutions such as e-health, e-education, e-extension and e-tax services.
- Develop a framework for standardization and interoperability of digital services to ensure seamless exchange of information between systems to avoid duplicate data collection, eliminate obsolete databases and reduce operating costs. For example, the national ID data should be connected with the SIM card, passport, driving permit, property (such as land and vehicles) and registration databases.
- Develop and roll out the national post and addressing system countrywide. These networks facilitate e-commerce, reinforce national security, ease the provision of aid and emergency services and facilitate the planning and implementation of public policies and services.
- Conduct digital literacy training for SMEs and awareness campaigns of ICT for different communities across the country.
- Support SMEs digitisation programme to enable them participate in e-commerce to make them resilient in post-COVID-19 era.
- Stimulate digital innovations across the whole economy and build a critical mass of talent to develop applications and services that can be consumed locally and even exported regionally and internationally.
- Establish regional innovation and incubation centres, ICT centres of excellence and vocational institutions.
- Strengthen the National ICT Initiatives Support Programme (NIISP) to support and mentor innovators across the country in development and commercialization of ICT products.
- Establish a reservation scheme for procurement of local ICT products by the Government and compel all MDAs to procure locally developed solutions.
