The National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) has launched UGHub, a platform that is expected to connect/integrate different Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to enable them operate as a single unified system and ease access to e-Services.
The UGHub platform has been developed with funding from the World Bank under the Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme (RCIP).
Speaking at the launch on Thursday, 30 September 2021, the NITA-U Executive Director, Dr. Hatwib Mugasa, said currently 12 MDAs have been integrated and can seamless share data in a secure, harmonized and reliable manner.
He said the core objective for setting up UGHub is for citizens to receive government services without necessarily having physical contact with government offices.
“The UGHub platform is going to immensely enhance reporting, planning and decision making across government and resultantly improve service delivery to citizens. More than 12 MDAs are already running on the system,” Dr Mugasa explained.
He said most governments entities spend considerable time and money to purchase, develop, implement and operate their own stand-alone systems.
“This is in addition to a considerable amount of resources spent in data collection and storage, system maintenance and security and the associated costs of duplicated information that has already been collected by other entities,” he said.
The NITA-Uganda Ag. Board Chairman, James Kyewalabye Kabajo, said the platform is the key to unlocking the country’s E-Government puzzle.
“We are launching UGHub today which to us is one of the steps to improving service delivery in Uganda using technology,” he said, adding that the Government set up the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) so as to connect all districts and towns via an optical fiber-based network.
“Uganda’s Digital Vision 2020 identifies ICT as a key driver to development. We can all agree that we cannot talk about Development without efficient service delivery,” he added.
Dr Mugasa noted that the foundation for our country’s Digital Transformation has been laid with state of the art infrastructure NBI and now UGhub
The Director of e-government services at NITA-U, Collin Babirukamu, said: Forget point to point service requests from different Ministries Departments and Agencies, the long queues, manual and multiple paper processes, UGHub is the end game in enabling seamless data & information sharing across Govt.”
This campaign is one of several initiatives under the Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (RCIP) funded by the World Bank, which aims to create a secure cyberspace. Soon, still under RCIP, Government of Uganda will be unveiling the National Cybersecurity Strategy for Uganda. The other partners are the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance who play a supervisory role, Uganda Police Force who are in charge of investigating cyber related crime and the Sauti Child Helpline.