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
