{UAH} ICT AND NATIONAL GUIDANCE MINISTER SPEAKS

My REMARKS as MINISTER OF ICT and National Guidance At the INAUGURAL
STAKEHOLDERS' DIALOGUE Today
Frank K Tumwebaze·Thursday, 7 July 2016
July 06, 2017, Sheraton Hotel, Kampala
Honourable members of Parliament
Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT,
Executives of Government ICT Agencies,
Members of the Press,

Members of the Broadcasters Association and your leadership,

Telecom players,

Members of the private sector and business associations,
Government communication officers

Innovators, developers and bloggers

Ladies and gentlemen;
I greet and welcome you all to this maiden stakeholder engagement and
media briefing for the ICT and government communication sector.
It is not in doubt that ICT advancements have been at the centre of a
transformation on how governments and private sector operate and its
role in revolutionizing the efficiency, convenience, and effectiveness
with which governments and private sector serve their people and
customers respectively.
My thoughts about the ICT sector are just evolving and will continue
to evolve through regular engagements like this one. Since ICT is a
dynamic Industry with technological innovations getting borne day by
day, it's imperative for governments to keep reviewing their policy
instruments for the sector. It's therefore, my intention to continue
having dialogues of this nature with stakeholders and broader sector
players to keep up-to-date with emerging trends so as to correctly
inform relevant sectoral Policies.
What I would like however to note from the onset, is that according to
United Nations e-Government Survey, our global rankings as a country
in regard to the uptake of IT innovations/services is still not good.
Our ranking globally has dropped from the 143rd position out of 190
countries ranked in 2012 to 156thout of 193 countries ranked in 2014.
From a continental angle, Uganda's ranking dropped by six (6)
positions down from position 20 in 2012 to position 26 in 2014. This
statistic calls for adoption of rigorous sector innovations, agile
implementation of best IT practices and matching ICT enabling
policies. We must not only talk about e-government but we must be an
e-government. Government officials must take the lead and break walls
of old technologies. Our midterm strategic objective is to join
Africa's top six ICT leaders that is, Seychelles, Mauritius, South
Africa, Tunisia and Egypt.
Today, I will share with you some ideas I have for the Sector, hear
from you and as well clarify on what may be necessary even when this
conversation and engagement is just starting.
Streamlining Government communication
By merging the Ministries of ICT and National guidance, H.E the
President appreciated the need for government to communicate factually
and timely - enabled by the robust ICT infrastructure. Government
agencies will have as a matter of priority to adopt the available
technologies in addition to the conventional ones in order to
communicate what services they are offering to the citizenry.
My ministry will work with other government ministries,
agencies/departments (MDAs) to build capacity in effective
communication, research and content dissemination. When government
communicates factually and timely, citizen demand for the available
services will be stimulated since they will know what to ask for,
where, how and when. It also fosters accountability and empowers the
citizens to monitor the delivery of public services with capacity to
query both the quality and quantity of services offered. This is
indeed the foundation of open government.
While criticism against the government in power is healthy and indeed
part of the communication we are emphasizing, narratives that seek to
brand our mother country Uganda wrongly and frame it with sensational
and conflated images, should not only be seen as unpatriotic schemes
of enemies but should be confronted and opposed by all. This duty is
not only for us in and leading government. It's for all of us as
citizens. If we accept the story of our country's heritage and its
super natural gifts to be wrongly told, or glossed over, then we all
lose, irrespective of the political beliefs we share. And this is
where the role of media as impartial umpires comes into serious play.
The altercations of the various political contenders not withstanding-
and as you moderate those political arguments in your news platforms,
do so jealously guarding the image of Uganda. Let always the story of
Uganda's uniqueness and progress stand out prominently. Let the
journalists, reporters and editors without any prompting of state
regulation develop a patriotic culture of being able to discern always
what can hurt the image of Uganda. Don't be used to amplify and
regurgitate anti-Uganda narratives by selfish and irresponsible
people, be it politicians or otherwise. If for example you claim and
report with a screaming headline that there is war in Uganda well
aware that there isn't, just know that you are hurting millions of our
jobs. Just know that operators of tourism lodges will suffer booking
cancellations and make refunds, airlines and tour companies will
close, remittances will slow down, the economy generally will stagnate
if not decline etc etc. It's a matter of citizen livelihood.
Therefore, this is a matter I would like to continue having a honest
conversation with you media Practitioners. Let us together evolve an
acceptable code of responsible reporting about our own country, while
at the same time not compromising a free press that continues to hold
government accountable on its promises.
To you the media colleagues, I pledge engagement. We shall always be
there to tell our story and listen to those who don't believe in what
we do. I call upon you to give us equal media space. If you give a
full page to an article of my critic, then do the same to my rebuttal.
If you give a minute to a sound byte of my critic do the same to my
rebuttal news byte such that your clients receive a balanced menu.
Don't deliberately make government look bad as if we can't justify our
actions by denying equal space to government messages. This is all I
ask of you and it's what I propose to define our principled relations.
On the other hand, I am aware that many government departments,
officials and leaders are always reluctant to share information with
the Press thus allowing speculation and misinformation to thrive. My
message to fellow government leaders some of which are represented
here by their respective sector spokespersons is that; if you don't
tell your story, someone else on your behalf will tell it the wrong
the way. We are in an information age and therefore government
departments must mainstream content gathering and dissemination in
their day to day official business using all available communication
platforms. It is also important that when any official of government
is to communicate, let him/her do so factually.
The goal of the Ministry of ICT and National guidance therefore, will
be to regularly and consistently keep Ugandans accurately, promptly
and responsibly informed through a combination of traditional, digital
and social media forms, in a well-coordinated manner, in order to
project the very best image of Uganda both internally and to the
outside world.
We will also provide a central point of feedback for the Public
through a citizen call centre that we shall soon unveil to the public
as part of government initiatives to promote citizen interaction.
ICT as a driver and enabler of National development
1. Affordable Internet
Internet is no longer just a luxury or an option for the few modern
elite. It's a basic necessity just like other utilities of electricity
and water are. The commitment of government is to continue investing
in all initiatives that will substantially scale up the internet
infrastructure coverage and also make it universal and affordable for
all.
The investment in the NBI was a very wise one since it managed to
bring down the cost of internet from USD 1,200 to USD 300 per Mbps per
month. This however needs to further be pushed down, and increase its
penetration across the country so as to enable young ICT innovators to
grow their businesses. Internet also must be fully subsidized for
Universities and Research Institutions. Global studies show that the
impact of an increase of 10% internet penetration results into an
increase in the GDP ranging from 0.25%- 1.38%. Internet is as a good
enabler to ICT innovators and young IT graduates getting jobs, and
improving service delivery as electricity is to manufacturers. With
the digital revolution, most of the big infrastructure projects we are
undertaking as a Country like SGR, Oil pipeline, Industrial Parks
etc., will require internet backbone installations. Lowering the cost
of internet therefore, will not only help ICT innovations but also
spur investment growth of e-services (e.g. mobile money, e-wallet, pay
way and their attendant functions) and grow jobs.
2. Sharing of ICT infrastructure
When we develop ICT infrastructure at a high cost, efforts to make IT
services universal and affordable get inhibited. I therefore would
like to pause one question to some of you ICT experts dealing in the
business of internet provision and to you the telecom operators. Why
don't we think and discuss about sharing internet infrastructure as
some known countries are doing for the sake of reducing heavy
investment costs that finally end up being pushed to the consumer? If
government has invested in the backbone infrastructure and is
continuing to scale it up to the last point of a sub county in the
medium term and eventually to a village in the long term, why should
telecoms also invest in the same infrastructure and put the burden on
the consumer? Why not share? What would be the purpose then of the
huge investment of government? What is the problem here? I stand to be
informed and educated on this; otherwise I find it a challenge to our
dream of rolling out affordable and universal e-services.
Other issues that I would like this dialogue to take note of and
discuss if time allows include; Non-uniform inter-network charges both
for voice and data. Why should I as a customer be charged higher fees
when I am sending money from one network to another, and calling as
well?

3. Supporting ICT Innovations;

H.E the President has been consistently advocating for science
innovations and also prioritized resources in the budget to support
these innovations like the Kiira vehicle, Banana project among others.
Many of you however looked at this science innovation fund as to be
restricted to agro, bio and chemical science innovations. The good
news I have today for you ICT innovators is that; government has
allowed to as well cover and support ICT innovations under this
science fund with all the necessary capacity in terms of incubating
projects and patent protection among others. What is therefore
required urgently from both you the ICT innovators of the various
hubs, academic institutions AND the ministry of ICT is to agree on the
criteria framework about the standards and potential of the
innovations to be supported.

I however think that for any innovation to be supported it must
demonstrate capacity to grow jobs and provide innovative solutions to
the implementation of e-government. After further consultations, I
will put up a committee/taskforce composed of experts to advise on the
framework of this support.

I would also like to appeal to you telecoms and other ICT firms to
always support locally generated innovations or what is commonly
referred to as local content. Do not outsource what can be sourced
internally.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for finding time to attend
this maiden dialogue. In particular, I thank the Ministry of ICT and
our agencies especially UCC for organizing this maiden dialogue. We
will continue to have it periodically to take the conversation forward
and provide feedback to each other on matters each player will have
committed to.

Thank you for listening to me. I look forward to a fruitful dialogue.

Frank Tumwebaze (MP)
MINISTER OF ICT AND NATIONAL GUIDANCE

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