ACHIEVING UGANDA’S VISION 2040

The Uganda programed National Development Strategic Plan(NDP III) 2023/25 of the NRM Government manifesto concept with its core goal of increasing household incomes, and improved quality of lives to every citizen under the theme of having sustainable industrialized inclusive growth, creating employment opportunities and wealth creation in securing the future of Uganda, to obtain the middle class economy greatly relies on the improved digitalized Government of Uganda (G.o.U) transformational program.

For over the last six years, Uganda has spearheaded and done incredible work under the Regional infrastructure communication project(RCIP) funded by the World Bank & Government of Uganda(G.o.U); Integration of government ICT systems with a faster & cheaper implementation policy/regulatory frameworks’ Improvement made by NITA-U through RCIP, Voted as one of the best implemented project changing lives across the country and also Commissioned by His Excellence Yoweri K.T. Museveni President of Uganda last year in August 2022 as a modality success obtained with no doubt; Electronic-public service delivery efficiency & Gov’t administrative data improvement through the cloud infrastructure have been proven/obtained with inclusive enhancement towards complementing the existing ICT initiatives using the National Backbone infrastructure(NBI) & the equitable optical fibre extension have been done regionally across most Districts and constituencies of Uganda.

The incredible team led by the master mind set piece, ?Dr. Hatwib Mugasa the National Executive Director of NITA-U, have managed to connect over 1446 sites/entities; Ministries, Departments, Agencies(MDA) and Local Government Offices, plus other interested end user groups; NGOs, Schools, Hospitals, & private Sector institutions’ on the Uganda’s Government NBI hosting different Gov’t Software Systems Application at their Data Centre, 141 Gov’t entities enrolled using the Unified Messaging & collaboration System (UMCS), the Credible NITA-U >UG-Hub platform that creates the Application Programming Interface(API) E-portal towards accessible quick online public service deliveries?for the Citizens like online application of Ugandan Pass port has been made simple & fast, online Banks-Mobile transactions, NIRA-U personal citizens identification confirmation, and many others.

Not forgetting the remarkable, UG-PASS, and MY-UG (Wi-Fi Hot spots) officiated all over Uganda especially at the Gov’t referral hospitals, the Entebbe National Airport, World bank funded Markets of Uganda, and the Kampala, Wakiso metropolitan urban center's officiated with high speed internet. The others towards E-government support, I.T support, Regulation & Compliance services; the I.T Certification Office , and the PDPO-Data Protection & Privacy results’ oriented?already execute more pavers of inclusiveness in I.T gender improvements both to the end consumers & decision makers.

Now that the ICT sector is Spreading it’s wings towards the implementation of the Unified Digitalization Acceleration Project(UDAP) that will enhance the NDP III agenda of reforming and transformation of the Ugandan economy to access quality e-government public service deliveries but also to act as an enabling bridge for obtaining the other strategic NDP III plans key growth drivers; innovation, & technology development, Governance & Security strengthening, public sector E-transformation, and the implementation of the developmental plan programs like in Agriculture/Agro based industrialization, Human capital development, Tourism, Minerals, Oils and Gas Utilization and many others.

The G.o.U will need increased ICT local content penetration, & created specialized systems of it’s own Applications hence that will reduce; cost of ICT devices, and services, creating more direct self reliant youth jobs owned/created in the ICT Business Processing Outsourcing (BPOs) sector, increase other online integrated Government services for example; IFMS, EGP, HCM, and many others are accessible & eased & strengthened systematic institutional Web based NDP III integrated reforms within the Budgeted Gov’t cycles & viable procedural procurements are utilized across all Gov’t sectors and as a key priority determinant player upon the said.

According to the RCIP 2022 Survey Report done by NITA-U in partnership with out stake holders in ICT fields indicated;?improved Gov’t funds accountability measurements in Audits both internally & externally within Gov’t institutions ?compared to the alternating analogue paper work inconsistencies that always led to Gov’t funds extortion, gov’t finances’ misuse, or theft of Government resources. Introducing the integrated systems soft ware Applications, at least fates have been reduced hence some Local Government Officials’ fallen victims especially at Ministries, & Local Gov’t levels have been investigated & some officials incarcerated (apprehended) by the G.o.U watch dogs; OAG, & Office of the President’s Anti corruption Unit. The risk management implementation tools have been designed monitoring and evaluating the Gov’t systematic integrated daily businesses which have brought in-checks. By UDAP another Project forthcoming under clear supervision just like before Certain Key identified inconsistences shall be expedited by the improved ICT systems to ensure quality control of service delivery desired by every Ugandan shall be witnessed.?

The fundamental objectives of the Unified Digitalization Acceleration Project(UDAP) have already been felt because of the RCIP project done well, and it’s operational mandate of enabling systematic transformed viable NPD III strategic plans with in the doctrine of using e-government services have attributed continuous interaction across local, regional, & the globally space to reduce on the risks of Epidemics, Cyber Security threats, Climate Change aspects, organized economic crimes /sabotage and many others hence Gov’t wasteful expenditures shall be reduced.

According to the National Planning Authority(NPA)III ?20/21-2024/25 Report, Uganda’s overall cost of financing all the NDP III programs intervention for the next five years is estimated of around UGX 411.68 trillion (average 40.9 percent of the GDP annually) & of which UGX 276.878 trillion is a contribution done by the public sector while UGX 134.803 trillion contributed by the private sector expenditure. This implies that 67.3 percent of the total resources are expected to be financed by the G.o.U Consolidated budget and 32.7 percent will be from the private sector. Nevertheless, the private sector contribution is significantly high if recurrent costs are included.

This can be a realized reduction off load from the private sector if digitalization transformation MUST policies in regulation act tames the extended & migrated reach to every MDAs, Local Government and other interested user groups' to the Gov’t NBI without bargaining tendencies. So that the G.o.U can also collect enough consolidated revenue from it’s created NBI with MDAs’ connected to the bulk broad bandwidth, Data Centre Services, e-government services & incubation youth innovative Research Centers(hubs) in partnership.?

All said in conclusion, Uganda's vision 2040 relates closes with the ICT sector growth however, affirmative action policies in Uganda specifically relating with Article 32 of the Uganda Constitution should promptly be taken with a high grade of consideration.