Overview:

NITA-U is setting up BPO centres at Gulu, Busitema and other universities to link graduates with international employers, director Julian Rweju has said.

Uganda is setting up business process outsourcing (BPO) centres at universities to connect graduates with international employers, a government agency has said.

The National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) says it is working with institutions including Gulu University and Busitema University on the scheme.

The centres will be workspaces where graduates can be based while NITA-U tries to attract foreign companies to offer them work.

“We then attract international companies to come and offer businesses and jobs to these people,” said Julian Rweju, the authority’s director of e-government services.

She said NITA-U was also building a national register of young people with IT skills, due this financial year.

International companies had often asked where they could find people to develop systems and set up networks, she said, and the register would make it easier to match them with local talent.

The authority is also working with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives to identify businesses that could employ young people.

“Our youth are educated and have very good English; all they need is someone to take them on and give them work to do,” Rweju said.

She was speaking at the close of the 10th National Conference on Communications (NCC), held at Makerere University and organised by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) with the university’s College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT).

This year’s conference focused on market-driven research and innovation.

UCC executive director Nyombi Thembo said research needed to go beyond producing knowledge and deliver practical solutions that improve livelihoods and public services.

ICT Minister Justine Kasule Lumumba told delegates that government policies worked best when they were grounded in evidence.

“Without research, we risk making decisions based on assumptions rather than facts,” she said.

She called for research that “moves beyond the shelves of our institutions and laboratories” and is put to use in communities, businesses and public services.

Assoc Prof Maria Kasule Kizito, the deputy principal of CEDAT, questioned what becomes of university research once it is complete.

“Who takes a promising prototype towards a product or service?” she asked, urging industry to tell universities which problems it needs solved.

Eng Christine Mugimba, UCC’s director of ICT and research, said the commission wanted to give promising innovations “clearer pathways to testing, adoption and commercialisation”.

A UCC assessment of the conference between 2011 and 2025 found that 71.1% of participants surveyed said they had published more research after taking part, while 62.2% reported giving more conference presentations.