[UgaBYTES] Minister Urges More Effort to Attain ICT Effectiveness

[Nasikye Esther]

Hullo friends,

Here is a summary of some of the issues from the ongoing e-Governance Forum
in Kampala, Uganda.

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Uganda has arguably made substantial progress in both rolling out key ICT
infrastructures and creating an apt environment in which people can
piggyback on these facilities to expand the comfort and convenience of their
lives.

However the latter is not happening as it should be, according to Uganda's
ICT Minister Dr Ham-Mukasa Mulira and that realisation is partly the centre
of intense deliberations by the ongoing e-Governance Forum on how citizens
can be primed to effectively utilise ICT tools.

The forum is taking place in Kampala, Uganda.

"We certainly need to focus on effective change management otherwise it's
wasted effort and resources if we put up all these ICT facilities and our
people cannot apply them in their day to day business," he said.

Held annually, the e-Governance Forum is organised by the Commonwealth
Telecommunications Organisation, CTO and it brings together government ICT
policy managers and architects, international regulators like the ITU,
private sector experts, ICT researchers and academics.

Dr Mulira, who delivered a paper on Uganda's e-governance policy and
objectives offered as the beacon of the country's ICT advance, the national
fibre optic backbone whose first phase has already been completed.

Financed with a loan from the Chinese government, the project will see the
physical government (ministries, departments, commissions, Authorities,
districts) connected by a fibre cable to facilitate fast flow of voice, data
and provide communication around it. Currently all the ministries in
Kampala, the Defence headquarters at Bombo, Jinja and the State House in
Entebbe have been connected.

Dr Mulira said debates and discussions would seek to further understand how
government can use ICTs to offer public services to citizens.

"While we have put these facilities in place, the government will have to go
and help ministries on how to use them. When we installed screens in these
ministries for video conferencing for instance, people didn't even know they
had to switch them on for them to work," he said.

CTO's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said Uganda was far
ahead of many of its peers in extending essential ICTs to rural areas along
the principle of universal access.

"Within the Commonwealth, many people have recognised Uganda's success in
bringing communications facilities to poor people in far flung places as a
model that can be adopted by other countries," he said.

Under the Rural Communications Development Fund, RCDF which is principally
financed by contributions from telecom companies, the Uganda Communications
Commission has established more than a 1000 telephony points in areas that
are underserved by private operators. Dozens of telecentres and ICT training
centres have also been erected.
Some delegates appealed to the CTO to help prevail on international
satellite operators to cutback on the sky-high bandwidth tariffs so internet
can be affordable to the masses in Uganda and other African countries.
Uganda and several other sub-Saharan African nations use satellite to
transmit all of their international digital traffic, which costs them lots
of money.

According to Mr Ekwow though not much can be done other than expediting the
construction of the sea based cables such that these nations can start to
use marine fibre to connect to the world.

There are three cable projects whose development is underway-EASSy (private
sector), TEAMS (Kenyan government) and UHURUNET which is being jointly
undertaken by regional governments. EASSy is the most advanced of all these.



 Source:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/business/Minister_urges_more_effort_to_attain_ICT_effectiveness.shtml


-- 
Esther Nasikye
Community Content Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiative
Plot 2218 Ggaba Road
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: 25641370163
skype:esther.nasikye

The fifth East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum is slated for May 2008
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