The Ministry of ICT in conjunction with Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) held a consultative workshop on the draft Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala.
In 1996, Government adopted the telecommunications policy which led to the liberalization of the sector, creation of Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) as the regulator and privatization of the then incumbent, Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (UPTC). More reforms in the telecommunications sub-sector were pronounced in 2005 which further opened it up to full liberalization.
In as much as the sub-sector was being reshaped using liberalization to attract foreign investments, government realized that there were new issues emerging due to rapid changes in technology and characterized by the advent of the internet, that it embarked on a process of addressing these new trends, which culminated in the approval by Cabinet of National ICT Policy Framework in 2003 to guide the development of the ICT sector in Uganda.
In spite of these policy interventions, different aspects of ICT remained scattered in different Government ministries, leading to creation of silos and lack of coordination in development and implementation of programs. To address this, a Ministry of ICT was created in 2006, with an aim of bringing all aspects of ICT under one roof. One of the first things the new Ministry addressed was to work on the law to create the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U). Its main objective was to focus on harnessing the Information Technology subsector to contribute to national development. Indeed NITA-U came into existence on 2009, but with a policy lacuna. Government went back to the drawing board and developed the National IT Policy to cushion NITA-U and indeed the policy was approved by Cabinet in 2011. Recently, an Information Management Services Policy has also been developed to address poor management of information resources within Government and beyond.
Parallel to the above policy development initiatives, a Broadcasting Policy was developed in 2005, and Draft polices for the Postal sub-sector as well as one for telecommunications are currently undergoing Cabinet approval processes. With all these sub-sector policies in place, it was deemed that the ICT Policy Framework of 2003 needs to be reviewed to take on board and amalgamate these policy pronouncement into one Policy document and capture other emerging areas that were not addressed before. This is a bottom-up approach that Government has adopted.
Under the policy and regulatory arrangements of the last 10 years or so, private sector investments, supplemented by some targeted government initiatives, have resulted in significant improvement of the ICT sector. For instance, Uganda has moved from approximately 250,000 available fixed telephone lines pre- 2003 to over 17 million available mobile telephone lines by the second quarter of 2012 and a penetration of more than 50%, thereby making Uganda’s telecommunications market one of the fastest growing in Africa. There is now sizeable ICT deployment in the functioning of government organizations, as well as in the private sector. In addition, ICT now drives many activities in the health, education, financial, tourism, literally in all sectors of the economy. The informal sector has also flourished as a spin-off effect resulting into the creation of many jobs for our citizens.
On the world scene, ICT has revolutionized the way production, market access and distribution of goods and services are organized. This has led to new business models emerging on the horizon leading to fundamental changes in the way enterprises relate to consumers. The Internet and the use of web-based technologies have led to new communication modalities that have forced traditional media – TV, radio and newspapers – to devise new strategies and alternative scenarios in the struggle to remain relevant. In sectors like trade, education, health, banking and agriculture, technology developments have made it possible for people to acquire and exchange information in an increasing variety of formats and collaborate with one another across national boundaries. Even in Uganda, more and more people use the Internet daily to communicate and transact business.
Indeed, ICT plays a major role in all aspects of national life: economic life, politics as well as social and cultural development. It also relates to human rights and supports freedom of expression and the right to information. It is against this backdrop that Government of Uganda has recognized that ICT has become a key enabler of economic and social transformation as clearly articulated in the National Development Plan 2010/2015, where ICT has been identified as one of the Primary growth sectors.
Over the last 25 years, Government has been battling poverty through a number of programs, among which was the PEAP. The global trend is that the government, market, civil society and community all need to work together and help to create conditions that will enable the poor to overcome their poverty, build their lives, economic and social assets, improve their capabilities, as well as reduce their risks and vulnerabilities. The role of ICTs is catalytic in this complex task of poverty reduction by leveraging effects on earning opportunities, on educational and health services, on good governance and on promoting democracy.
In its long term vision, Government of Uganda, like all other countries aspires to be a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life, within the shortest time possible.
Aware that ICT have the potential to impact economic growth by providing the catalytic role to other sectors, this new ICT policy is aimed at supporting the realization of the national vision. The thrust of the policy recommendations is aimed at enhancing the existing Sub-Sector Policies in the areas of Telecommunications, Postal services, Broadcasting, Information technology and Information management Services. It goes further to elucidate a number of crosscutting areas ranging from Research and Development, through Human capacity building to awareness creation and mass sensitization, among others. There is a separate chapter on emerging issues policy areas that include the Internet, Information Security, E-Government, the use of ICTs in education, Health, Agriculture, Commerce, and a number of other sectors. The understanding is that each subsector will develop its own detailed sector policy. Finally there are parts on Priority programs, Institutional Framework, as well as Monitoring and Evaluation.