The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance has launched a campaign dubbed ‘Discover Africa’s Innovation Powerhouse,’ that is meant to promote Uganda as a Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) innovation and investment destination.
Speaking at the launch that also marked the start of the innovation week, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of ICT, Dr Aminah Zawedde, said her ministry is refocusing on Business Process Outsourcing and Advisory Services, Innovation and Information Technology to promote employment and industrialisation in Uganda.
“As a Government, we strongly believe that BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and Innovation can be part of the solution to youth unemployment,” she said.
As a Government, we strongly believe that BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and Innovation can be part of the solution to youth unemployment,”
Dr Aminah Zawedde, ICT MINISTRY PERMANENT SECRETARY
“Today marks the start of a journey whose purpose is to identify and support innovators & BPO practitioners and provide growth opportunities for them,” she added.
She explained that they are going to develop an Innovation and BPO sector technical support mechanism for knowledge and skills transfer as well as a monitoring framework that will ensure continuous evaluation of the industry activities.
Dr Zawedde said her ministry shall profile all Ugandan BPO/Innovation companies. “This is because given the maturity of the different companies they require different support to be provided,” she explained.
Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Information minister, said: “We want to use the opportunity of ICT to create jobs. To create employment for our young people. And that’s why we created an Innovation Fund.”
He said Uganda has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, some may look at it in the negative “We have an educated and highly skilled population. The only challenge is transforming this highly skilled population into employment,” he added.
The minister also revealed government plans to extend internet connection across the country to promote innovation.
“We are in discussion with private players to make sure that the cost of the internet becomes cheap and available in the country. Our target is to see that the cost of the internet comes down to $5 per megabyte per second,” Dr Baryomunsi said.
“Our target is to see the whole country is connected so that when you’re in Kisoro, Kanungu, Lira you are able to work for as long as you are connected to the internet,” he added.
Dr Zawedde appealed to our partners like Airtel to support the programe.
“Let us show the world that Uganda is an innovation powerhouse,” she said.
Grace Achire, the CEO of Vantage Communications, a PR and Communication Agency, stressed the need for us to beware of how we brand Uganda as an Innovation Powerhouse.
“We ought to create visibility that’s in line with the evolution of trends for us to complete globally. As a country, we need to be relevant to the private sector need as well as build a framework to collect data and information,” she said.
Michael Niyitegeka called for the overhaul of Uganda’s education system if the country is to promote ICT.
“We need to reverse engineer our approach to exams. Education has become all about passing exams,” he said.
The United Nations Capital Development Fund ranked Uganda 12th in Africa, with a score above the regional average in technology and governance.
At the same function, a team of five innovators were flagged to represent Uganda at the Dubai Expo 2022 innovation week starting on the 21 March 2022.
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