Hon. Minister for ICT Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda inaugurated new members of the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda (NITA-U) board. The inauguration ceremony was held on Tuesday January 10th 2012 at the Ministry of ICT boardroom. Below are the profiles of the new board members

Dr. Francis Fredrick Tusubira

Dr F F Tusubira worked for Makerere University from 1975 – 2007, with the key distinction of being the founding Director, Directorate for ICT Support, Makerere University (2001 – 2007). As Director DICTS, he spearheaded institutional ICT policy and master plan formulation, funding mobilisation, and implementation. Nationally, he is a member of the National Citizenship and Immigration Board, served two terms as a Commissioner (also a founding commissioner) of the Uganda Communications Commission (1998 – 2005), and one term as a founding member of the Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority (2002 – 2005). At the continental level, he has been the first Director of the NetTel@Africa capacity building network (ICT policy and regulation), and is a member of the Research ICT Africa team. He was a Component Lead for the Capacity Building component of the DFID/Sida funded CATIA initiative.

He is currently a Member of the Board and CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking in Africa; a member of the Board of TENET, the research and education network of South Africa; a member of the Advisory Panel to the Research and Education Networking Unit of the Association of African Universities; a member of the Board of the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation; and a member of the Board of the Global Development Learning Network. http://www.fftusubira.com

Ms Beatrice Amongi Lagada

Ms. Beatrice Amongi Lagada started out as an education administrator working for 10 years as an inspector of schools before joining St. Katherine’s School as headmistress. She has since served as a Resident District Commissioner for Mbarara, a National Resistance Council member and Constituency Assembly delegate for Apac District. She also served as the deputy director for gender at the NRM secretariat from 1997 to 2005. In 2006 she joined the 8th Parliament as women representative for Oyam District. She was Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Labour & Social Development. She is actively involved in fighting for women’s rights and is currently leading a battle against female genital mutilation.

Mr Kenneth Mugambe

Mr. Kenneth Mugambe has 14 years working experience in planning, public expenditure management, public sector budgeting, macro~economic management and public administration. Mr. Mugambe has worked as Principal Economist responsible for the Budget Execution and Evaluation Section of the Budget Policy and Evaluation Department in the Ministry of Finanace Planning and Economic Development. He went on to become an Assistant Commissioner in the Economic Development Policy and Research Department where he was a lead member of the team that formulated the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) 2004. He was a member of a Task Force that developed the export competitiveness strategy for Uganda.

As the Commissioner of Budget Policy & Evaluation Department at Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development, he is at the forefront of drawing up the national medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) that is used as a tool to determine the national expenditure priorities as well as the rationalization of resource allocation both in the short and medium term.

E-Government can broadly be defined as the use of ICT to promote a more efficient and effective government, facilitate accessibility to government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to citizens.

The Government of Uganda (GOU) recognizes the role of information and Communications Technology (ICT) in fostering economic development and is taking giant steps to adopt the emerging new technologies in order to efficiently deliver public services through IT (e-government).

Although the most obvious benefit of e-government is improving the service to people, E-government will also save Ugandans money in the form of faster, easier and more convenient service, better quality and reduced turnaround times, and in some cases a reduction in the direct cost for the service. There are also many social benefits including increased community skill and knowledge, and new business and work opportunities. Not all the benefits of e-government are to the users. It can also deliver cost savings to government and its agencies.

Efforts towards implementing e-Government in Uganda started in 2004, when an e-Readiness Assessment was conducted. The study concluded that despite the government will and mandate, the growth of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the country was hampered by funding, investments, and affordability. The study recommended that an adequate ICT infrastructure was needed within the government and in the country to accelerate the growth of ICT and contribute toward economic development.

Government has since then undertaken various projects to improve ICT infrastructure which include the National Backbone/E-government Infrastructure, District Business Information Centers (DBICs), etc.

Government conducted a National ICT Master Plan and e-Government Network Feasibility Study to chart a technically feasible, coordinated and financially responsible course of ICT development within the country through the ICT Master Plan and then focuses more narrowly on the Government sector as a subset within the overall ICT development plan.

An e-Government Strategy Framework was developed in 2006 to as an engine to kick start a harmonized implementation of e-Government initiatives as one of the facets to transform our country into a knowledge-based economy.

In 2011 cabinet approved the National e-Government Policy Framework. This will ensure that a proper enabling policy environment is in place to facilitate rapid implementation of Government-wide e-government services. Government is already rolling out shared services/e-services such as Unified Messaging and Collaboration System, e-taxation, video conferencing, VoIP etc

Sound approaches for e-government developments should take advantage of lessons learned globally, that reflect local realities and priorities. To this end, a number of factors including; infrastructure, legislation and regulatory environment, organizational and back-office reengineering should be considered and together form an approach to e-government development that is comprehensive, organic, sustainable and meaningful. An important tool to initiate e-government programmes and applications is the e-government readiness assessment.

National Information Technology Authority –Uganda (NITA-U) procured a Consultancy to conduct an e-Government Readiness Assessment for the GOU with the following objectives:
•    To raise awareness as to the bottom line motivations and capacities those have to be in place in order to assure a reasonable basis for success in the e-government development process;
•    To establish and assess the current practice on public management and service delivery and capacity to use ICT in public sector;
•    To usefully describe the environment in which e-government development will occur and confirming the viability of application of e-government approaches;
•    For pinpointing the "weak links" in this environment - for remedial action and, in this way, enhancing the chances for eventual success of e-government development;
•    In extreme cases, advising against application of e-government approaches in a given public administration, as its given level or in a given organizational part of it;
•    Informing broad or sectoral e-government strategy and action plan development;
•    Providing an e-Government monitoring and evaluation tool.

NITA-U has organized today’s consultative workshop to bring together all stakeholders to provide views and opinions that will be used to develop a framework of establishing e-governance in Uganda.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS STATEMENT
NITA-U
December 15, 2011

The National Information Technology Authority Uganda tasked Ugandan designers to develop a logo that would be the brand identity of the semi-autonomous government Authority.

The review of the first phase of the National Information and Technology Authority- Uganda (NITA-U) logo design competition is now over. A panel of judges that included University Lectures and practicing designers was tasked to deliberate and select the concept that best represented NITA-U.

NITA-U is, therefore, proud to announce the shortlisted candidates. We received excellent concepts/submissions and the consensus of the judges is that there is no shortage of great ideas and designers in Uganda.

It was a very difficult task to review over 65 entrees and shortlist just 10 of the designs that best met the design criteria. There are many of excellent ideas that did not make it to the shortlist that showed creativity and visioning for the ICT industry in Uganda.  NITA-U congratulates all applicants for their effort and encourages all who participated to pursue their ideas with passion and determination.

The unveiling of the winning concept and unveiling of NITA-U identity is expected to take place early next year.

List of shortlisted applicants

1. John Paul Sagala Majani
2. Kisambira Ronald
3. Adrian Aturinda
4. Byaruhanga Innocent
5. Kateregga Michael
6. Virginia ssemakula
7. Katugume Johnson
8. Egessa Derrick
9. Bette Ronald

Shortlisted candidates have been notified.

November 29, 2011

NITA-U Corporate communication Office

In a bid to address the unemployment concerns among the youth, Government of Uganda designed the Job Stimulus Program (JSP) aimed at creating job opportunities to the youth mainly through the use of ICT.

NITA-U developed a roadmap for the development and promotion of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in Uganda which included creating a critical mass of trained youth in BPO skills from which BPO companies would recruit staff.  To this end, NITA-U partnered with Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences to train 500 graduates in Business Process Outsourcing Skills (BPO).

The first intake of the Business Process Outsourcing programme graduated from the College of Computing and IT on 26th April 2011. The two month training equipped the trainees with soft skills to enable them work in the BPO industry in areas of information technology, customer care, human resource and call centres. This programme was conducted in partnership with the Ministry of ICT, Orion Outsource world and the African BPO Academy (ABA).

Progress so far made toward implementation of the government call centre.

• A database of everyone who completed the BPO course at Makerere has been created and availed to the BPO operators. The BPO operators have shown interest in recruiting all 500. NITA-U hopes to train more youth – this financial year (2011/12) to create a critical mass of BPO trained youth in Uganda, ready to be employed by BPO operators.
• NITA-U is in the process of setting up the BPO Contact centre, which will be used to employ at least 1,000 people. NITA-U plans on the Operationalizing the BPO contact center by November 2011.

The delay in the implementation of the call centre was due to procurement of the BPO building and led us to choose an alternative route; NITA-U Space on 3rd and 4th Floor Statistics House. We are currently engaging all key stakeholders to ensure this development works to ensure that the centre is up by October 2011.

Two BPO operators have been awarded to operate in the centre. NITA-U has also identified more operators who will operate under the BPO Incentives scheme.

In addition, NITA-U is developing the BPO incentive scheme together with the supporting incentive guidelines for other BPO operators, who will not be operating in the BPO centre. NITA-U will ensure the development and sustainability of BPO industry in Uganda.

September 23, 2011

NITA-U Corporate Communication Office