I wish to take this opportunity to welcome you to this consultative stakeholder’s workshop on the development of NITA –U strategic plan.  As you may be aware, NITA – U is among the institutions vested under my political supervision and oversight.

It is the newest institution in the ICT sector created in 2009 and commenced operations in 2010.  Permit me to briefly share with you the government’s vision in creation of NITA- U and the mandate that was bestowed to this critical institution.

The government established the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA U) in order to strengthen efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public service through the use of Information Technology.   It was established on backdrop of observed slow progress in the IT subsector compared to the sub-sectors such as communications and broadcasting. This sluggish development of the IT subsector was diagnosed and seen to be caused by among others lack of a champion and separation of policy, regulatory and implementation functions in the sub-sector then.

NITA U was thus established by ACT of Parliament of 2009 and charged with the overall mandate to coordinate, promote and monitor the development of Informational Technology (IT) in the context of social and economic development of Uganda.   In pursuance of the above mandate the authority is expected to;

1) co-ordinate, supervise and monitor the utilization of the Information Technology in the public and private sectors;

2) identify and advise Government on all matters of Information Technology Development, utilization and deployment;

3) set, monitor, and regulate standards for information Technology planning, acquisition, implementation, delivery, support, organization, sustenance, disposal, risks management, data protection, security and contingency planning;

4) regulate and enforce standards for Information Technology hardware and software equipment procurement in all Government Ministries, Departments, agencies and parastatals;

5) provide first-level Technical support and advice for critical Government Information Technology Systems

For the two years of its operation, NITA-U  has been able to accomplish most of the set up activities and deliver important national IT infrastructure projects such as the National Data Transmission Infrastructure/Electronic Governmnet Infrastructure (NBI/EGI) and, District Business Information  Centres (DBICS). It is also in advanced stages of finalizing the introduction of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) call centre, which is expected to create employments to Ugandan youth, generate revenues and foreign exchange for the country.

It is also important to note that beginning the FY 2011/12, NITA- U stopped being a department within the Ministry of ICT - it attained a subvention status making NITA U a self- accounting entity.  The above notwithstanding, the operational environment is so dynamic necessitating undergoing a strategic planning process. The process will help the authority to reposition itself more strategy if it is to remain relevant in changing circumstances. It will also assist in gauging users’ expectations to ensure that it delivers services that fulfill identified needs of the general public/ ordinary citizens.

The Government of Uganda has identified ICT as a core strategy for enhancing public service delivery, growth and employment creation. This is clearly enshrined in the 5-Year National Development Plan (NDP) and the national Resistance Movement (NRM) Party Manifesto. The overall vision is to transform the country into knowledge-based Uganda where national development and good governance are sustainably enhanced and accelerated by timely and secure access to Information and efficient application of ICT.  ICTs must be integrated in the social and economic fabrics of Ugandans or in all spheres of life to facilitate faster socio-economic transformation.

We are so optimistic that with good long term planning, ICT will be a key driving force to propel Uganda to a middle income or developed nation with 30 year vision.  It will rival important developments such as Oil and gas, and most importantly it has a great potential for job creation and creation of an information society.

Due to sound policy and regulatory environment introduced in the sector by the NRM government over the past decade or so, Ugandans have already started reaping the benefits of competition in the ICT sector.   Before I conclude allow me to share with you a few indicators and trends in the ICT sector that NITA-U’s strategic planning process must leverage and build on.

By the end of December 2011, close to 16.5million Ugandans or an estimated half of the population of Uganda had access to personal telephone (mainly mobile phones) and the rest of the population could still access basic call services through over 1,000 public payphones erected at different parts of the country.  By June 2011, the fixed internet subscription had gone up to 84,558 from 31,000 in June 2010 while the mobile broadband connections were estimated at 850,200 connections from 510,000 subscriptions in June 2010.

Currently there are over about 5million internet users countrywide, i.e. 12 persons per 100 persons accessing internet. The cost of internet bandwidth has also come down from an average of US$ 1,000 per MBps per month to about US$ 600 per 1 MBps per month for dedicated internet subscription.

The use of mobile money services continued to grow with an increase in the amount of money exchanged over the platform and more customers subscribing to the service.  . By December 2011, the number of registered users had gone up to 2.8million from 1.8million in December 2010. The number of transactions had reached 84.7million worth Shs.3.75trillion.

While all these are no mean achievements,  there are still a number of challenges in the entire ICT sector and the IT subsector in particular that I would wish that they are addressed by NITA-U’s strategic plan.  I will mention a few.  One, slow transition from manual to electronic systems, which calls for massive sensitization and mindset change. Two, duplication  of IT initiatives and systems across government, which calls for urgent rationalization and harmonization of IT initiatives, and  Three, limited use  of shared applications across government, which soar the cost of communication.   I urge you to find solutions to these and other challenges during your discussions of the emerging issues and priorities for NITA- U’s strategic plan.    Finally, I wish to reiterate government’s commitment to developing a knowledge-based economy and distinguishing Uganda as an ICT Hub in the country.  This is the vision of the political leadership of the country, which we expect the technocrats to translate into actionable plans and strategies.

It is to our great expectation that the institutional NITA U strategic plan will be linked to the overall ICT sector strategy and will be a building block towards the development of the national ICT strategy and master plan.  Development of the national ICT strategy and master plan is so critical and therefore implore the relevant institutions to act on this immediately.

I thank you and wish you fruitful deliberations.

For God and My Country

I welcome you all to this Stakeholder consultative workshop on e-government readiness assessment. I also wish to thank the organizers, National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA U) for this timely stakeholder engagement.

You may recall, in July 2011, Cabinet approved the National E-government Policy Framework with the overall objective of improving public service delivery through systematic transformation from manual to electronic-based systems and practices.  The policy framework broadly defines        e-government to include all electronic transactions that facilitate service delivery among Government organs, Ministries, Institutions, Departments and Agencies (G2G); between Government and the private sector (G2P), and between Government and the citizenry (G2C).  The e-government policy framework, which is currently being implemented calls for transformation in many ways, we conduct business as Government. They include;
1.    The need to institutionalize IT and e-government services in public service including e-Cabinet.
2.    Expansive use of shared services such as Government web portal, unified messaging and collaboration services, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) across Government.
3.    Creation of relevant and sharable content by the different Government MDAs
4.    Development of  a National Information Security Strategy to protect electronic information storage and usage; and
5.    Development of a National Strategy for Internet Resource including Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) Management Policy, among others.

As a first step to operationalizing the e-government policy framework, Government enacted three cyber laws, namely;
1.    E-Transactions Act
2.     E-signatures Act
3.    Computer Misuse Act.

Before ensuring full deployment of e-government services, Government, found it necessary to establish the current status of     e-government services in the Country based on a number of indicators for access, penetration, utilization and usage of ICT facilities and services. Thus conducting of the national e-government readiness assessment/survey. The specific objectives of the e-government survey are:

i.    To raise awareness as to the bottom line motivations and capacities that have to be in place in order to assure a reasonable basis for success in the e-government development process;
ii.    To establish and assess the current practice on public management and service delivery and capacity to use ICT in the public sector;
iii.    To usefully describe the environment in which e-government development will occur and confirming the viability of application of e-government approaches;
iv.    For pinpointing the “weak links” in this environment (e-government) – for remedial action and, in this way, enhancing the chances for eventual success of e-government development;
v.    In extreme cases, advising against application of e-government approaches in a given public administration, at a given level or in a given organizational part of it;
vi.    Forming broad or sectoral e-government strategy and action plan development;
vii.    Providing an e-Government monitoring and evaluation tool.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED), in the November 2011 Budget Call circular decried the fact that “several Government agencies have continued to procure inappropriate and fragmented IT systems”.  As such, urged NITA-U to expedite the rollout of implementation of the National Data Transmission Backbone and e-Government Infrastructure and provide the necessary technical assistance to Government MDAs in order to ensure full harmonization of IT operations in institutions. The MoFPED has also directed NITA-U to ensure that the above information is availed to all spending agencies not later than 13th January 2012, to ensure effective finalization of Sector Budget Framework Papers in general and budget estimates at Vote level in particular.

Consequently, NITA U, in line with her mandate to coordinate and rationalize the use of IT equipment and services in Government has commissioned a mini survey of the national IT initiatives that will take place between 19-23rd December, 2011. The survey will feed into the comprehensive e-government readiness survey.  I wish to take this opportunity to urge you to support these two parallel initiatives with a common goal of ensuring well developed, integrated and interoperable IT systems and services in the country.

On behalf of the Ministry of ICT and the ICT sector, I thank you all for your support to the sector and look forward to similar collaboration in 2012.   
I may not have another opportunity to meet some of you before the Christmas, therefore I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I also take this opportunity.

I now take the honor to declare this stakeholder consultative meeting on e-government readiness assessment survey officially open and wish you good deliberations.
FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

As a follow up to the visit by H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda to Rwanda in July, 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on July 29th 2011, under the umbrella of the 7th session of Joint Permanent Commission on cooperation between the two countries with regard to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Subsequently, a delegation from the Republic of Rwanda led by the Minister in the President’s Office in Charge of Information and Communications Technology Hon. Ignace Gatare made a follow up visit to Uganda on 16th – 17th November, 2011, at the invitation of the Minister of ICT, Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda. The objective of the visit was to discuss and share experiences with regard to areas of cooperation as elaborated in the MoU on ICT sector, and lay ground for implementation.

During the discussion, the following areas were covered: Telecommunications, Information Technology, Broadcasting, Postal Services and Human Resource.  The details are hereunder elaborated.

The National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) will be leading of the areas of fiber connectivity and information technology.

In the final communique given by the two ministers the following were agreed:

It was recognized that some of the Telecommunication operators already have cross border fiber links. However, the quality of services of these links is inadequate.  Therefore, there is need for the two countries to have a more reliable connectivity.

i. In the short term, a task force shall be established to monitor availability of current links that are provided by the private operators between Kampala and Katuna, as a measure of improving the reliability of this route.

ii. As a long term measure, it has been agreed that connectivity between the two National backbones be established by December 2012.

iii. In order to ensure adequate redundancy on international connectivity, the two countries will work together to secure satellite bandwidth.

And to increase reliability of international connectivity for the region, the countries will use the alternative route through South Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti to have access to other international submarine cables. This will be fast-tracked through the Nile Basin initiative.

The countries also agreed to put in place measures to ensure that the regional internet traffic between the two countries is routed through the most efficient route, preferably through the fiber linkage, by June 2012.

The countries also agreed to cooperate and share experience and expertise in the establishment of their respective Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and will also ensure that the CERTs share information. Other areas of cooperation were the ID project, public ICT access points, capacity building and BPO.

A joint technical team responsible for the implementation and progress reporting of the agreed areas will be established by the respective Permanent Secretaries within two weeks from the date of signing the joint communique.

Joint communique signed after the visit

On Friday 7, 2011, at Statistics House, the Vice President of Uganda H.E. Edward Ssekandi launched the operationalization of Phase 1 and Phase II of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and Electronic Government Infrastructure (NBI/EGI). Below is the speech given by the Executive Director for NITA-U, Mr James Saaka.

Your Excellency, The Vice President,Rt. Honorable Prime Minister,Rt. Honorable Deputy Prime Minister,Honorable Ministers Present, Honorable Speaker of Parliament, Honorable Members of Parliament, Your Excellences the Ambassadors, Permanent Secretaries, Invited Guests, Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the launch of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure / Electronic Government Infrastructure (NBI/ EGI). In a special way, I invite you to join me in welcoming our guest of honour for having graced this occasion. Also, allow me to take this rare opportunity extend my appreciation to the government of Uganda and to His Excellency the President for having established the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U), and for further entrusting her with the responsibility of delivering this critical national project.

NITA-U being a new institution that it is, Guest of honour Sir, allow me to give a brief background about this institution for the benefit of our distinguished guests. NITA-U was established in 2009 by an Act of Parliament as a semi-autonomous agency under the overall political supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT). It was charged with primary responsibility of coordinating, promoting and monitoring Information Technology (IT) developments in Uganda within the context of National Social and Economic development. The vision of the Authority is to be a facilitator of a knowledge-based, globally competitive   Uganda where social transformation and economic development is supported through Information Technology enabled service. The Authority is to deliver the above vision by integrating Information Technology (IT) into National programs by focusing establishment of coordinated and harmonized National IT systems.

Your Excellency the Guest of honour, it is in line with the above statutory mandate that NITA U was entrusted with overseeing, coordinating and supervising the implementation of the NBI/EGI project, whose first two phases we are launching today. This project aimed at laying a fibre optic cable network connecting major towns, administrative headquarters, hospitals and other target priority users in Uganda and promoting use of e-government services.

The key challenges of the IT sector that this project intends to address include; One, the isolated/ disparate IT systems due to lack of a common platform. Two, limited network sharing leading to duplication and wastage of resources. Three, high cost of broadband and limited speed, Four, high maintenance costs for IT related services. As a result there has been limited use of electronic transactions across government.

The NBI/EGI is a capital intensive project that the government of Uganda undertook with financial and technical support from the Government of the people’s Republic of China. At this juncture allow me to extend our sincere gratitude to the Chinese government for the loan of US $106m and Huawei technologies for the technical input into developing the network.

Your Excellency the Guest of honour, the NBI/EGI project has been implemented into phases; Phase I, covers 168 Kms of Optical Fibre Cable Connecting Kampala, Jinja, Mukono, Entebbe and Bombo; Phase II, covers 1380 Kms of Optical Fibre Cable connecting Phase I to Luwero, Nakasongola, Masindi, Gulu, Lira, Soroti, Kumi, Mbale, Tororo, Busia, Hoima, Kyenjojo, Fort Portal, Kasese, Bushenyi and Mbarara. And, Phase III which is soon to commence, will cover 307.2 Kms of Optical Fibre Cable connecting the NBI to Masaka, Mbarara and Katuna.

To date, Phase I and II are completed entailing 1548km of fibre optic cable laid, connecting 22 districts across the country, 22 Optical switching transmission stations, 1 data centre installed and 1 Metropolitan Area Network Centre. As a result, 27 ministries have been connected; video conferencing services facilities supplied to all MDAs, unified messaging and collaboration services have been piloted in two agencies namely NITA-U and  Ministry of ICT. Voice over Internet Protocol piloted in Ministries of Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs and ICT; and NITA-U.

Your Excellency the Guest of Honour Sir, this project is expected to deliver a number of benefits to the government of Uganda and the entire economy.

1. It will lower the cost of Internet bandwidth for Government and targeted user groups such as Schools, Universities, Hospitals, Research Institutions, etc.

2. It will provide high speed internet bandwidth to support Information technology enabled services such as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which will create jobs and earn foreign exchange.

3. It will enhance efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to the citizens of Uganda through electronic transactions such as; e-taxation, e-health, and e-learning

4. The NBI will improve collaboration within Government through services such as unified messaging and collaboration services as well as enhance efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to the citizens of Uganda through electronic transactions such as e-taxation, e-health, and e-learning.

5. It will also support the digital migration process by providing auxiliary infrastructure for the transmission and delivery of digital television signals

6. Last but not the least; it will facilitate business transactions nationally and internationally through the adoption of E-commerce.

Your Excellency Sir, the government has realized that in order to fully exploit  the benefits of NBI/EGI there must be an enabling environment for the promotion of electronic government. We wish to recognize the government effort in passing of the requisite cyber laws (Computer Misuse Act, Electronic Transactions Act and the Electronic Signatures Act). Harmonization of Private Public Partnerships policy framework is also ongoing. We are in the process of implementing the Public Key Infrastructure, security architecture that will facilitate more secure online transactions, conducting an e-government readiness survey and developing architectural blue-print for government (government portal).

Your Excellency and guest of honour, in order to fully optimise the NBI network, we request that the government directs all MDAs to use the NBI as their primary infrastructure for Voice, Data, Internet and e-mail.  It is our pleasure to inform you that the Parliament, Ministries of ICT, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Defence; and Uganda Buareau of Statistics (UBOS) are already benefiting from the NBI to deliver the Financial Information Management System .  Prior to the launch we have carried out tests to the network and proved that it has adequate capacity and speed to support e-government services. We have already demonstrated that NBI/EGI supports e-government services, like video conferencing and unified messaging services to key stakeholders including Parliament (Members of the sessional committee on ICT), some Cabinet Ministers and Permanent Secretaries. To improve efficiency and effectiveness, management of the NBI will be tendered out to a private operator who will ensure 24hr availability of the network. Prior to this, a Forensic Technical Audit and Security audit are being conducted on the NBI/EGI to identify areas for rectification if any.Your Excellency the guest of honour before I end my speech I wish to share with you some of the challenges of this project.

First, I wish to report that there are people who vandalize the network leading to breakages. Two, there is inadequate resources to facilitate a fast roll out across the country (border to border) and third, there is resistance to change from manual to electronic-enabled systems by some stakeholder groups.

Finally, on behalf of NITA-U I would like to extend my appreciation to the government for the goodwill and support thus far. We do reaffirm our commitment to deliver on the mandate of transforming Uganda into a knowledge-based economy. The NBI and other on-going initiatives will go a long way towards realization of this dream. We continue to canvass support from our private sector partners as well.

For God and my Country

James Saaka