Prime
Share of online govt services is now at 40%
Government has previously shifted a number of its services online. Photo / File
What you need to know:
- Uganda currently has an internet penetration of 65 percent
Finance Minister Matai Kasaija has said Uganda has installed a total of 4,354 kilometre of fiber cables across the country, connecting 1,523 key government service delivery units to the National Backbone Infrastructure.
Speaking during the 15th National Competitiveness Forum in Kampala, Mr Kasaija said this has resulted in increased internet penetration in the country to 64 percent from 25 percent in 2017, and the share of government services provided online growing to 40 percent from 20 percent in 2017.
“Going forward, Wi-Fi will be further rolled out to an additional 820 key locations at subsidised rates, focusing on essential services such as schools, hospitals, and markets. We will also upgrade the national backbone infrastructure to enhance connectivity across Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area,” he said.
The investments, he said are fully aligned with the broader goal of growing the economy ten-fold by 2040.
Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, the Ministry of Finance permanent secretary, said government had embarked on the journey of building a $500b economy within 15 years under the ten-fold growth strategy beginning with the 2025/26 financial year, in which technology-led productivity will be a condition to reach double- digit economic growth.
Globally, he said, human progress has been based on advance in science, technology, and innovation, which have seen dramatic increase in productivity.
“The global [science, technology, and innovation] market presents opportunities worth $51.4 trillion, with the pathogen economy valued at 12 trillion, while mobility is at $15 trillion. Today’s discussions [will] help us identify opportunities along these value chains for the private sector to invest and transform this economy,” he said, noting that currently, 77 percent of Uganda’s import expenditure is spent on science, technology, and innovation-related products, thus by focusing on developing domestic capabilities, this can be retained to strengthen the economy.
He also noted that government was pursuing a three-dimension economic agenda of full monetisation, formalisation and employment of the country’s factors of production such as land, labour, capital, technology and entrepreneurship, with the view of relocating some factors of production from lower to higher productivity activities.
As of 2021, four out of every five workers were engaged in low-skill jobs such as sales and crafts, while only 15 percent belonged to occupations classified as either professional, technical or machine-dependent.
