Ministry of ICT decries low funding 

The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance officials have decried inadequate funding to implement a number of government programmes under their docket.
The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ms Aminah Zawedde without revealing the required funds, said the ministry is financially struggling yet the ICT sector is the most important pillar in driving the status of the economy.

Ms Zawedde said that the Ministry of ICT is implementing four programmes: the digital transformation looking at the digitisation agenda, the community mobilisation and mind-set change, a public sector management programme aimed at supporting public service delivery by digitising the sector and the balanced regional development programme.

Speaking during the opening of the two-day retreat for MPs on committee of ICT and National Guidance, she explained that although the Ministry is supposed to implement the digital transformation roadmap, its hands were tied because there are no funds to support its implementation.
 “When it comes to regulations, we (Uganda) are doing so well; we have very good policies, very good regulations even some of our neighbours have borrowed these regulations and taken them and only customised them to their settings and they are thriving.  So we are at about 77 percent when it comes to measuring our performance on policies.  Our only challenge is enforcement because there are no resources,” MS Zawedde said.

Ms Zawedde noted that to promote digital transformation there must be an enabling environment, right policies, regulations and guidelines and have the right infrastructure in place which require a lot of funding.
She noted that the ministry needs to embark on digital skilling farmers, market vendors, taxi operators and those who do bus ticket booking to ease their work and supporting innovation.

“For digital skilling, the Uganda Institute for Communications Technology is a skilling entity under the Ministry that we want to turn into a centre of excellence for specialised skilling. We need professionalism across the board when it comes to the ICT sector,” Ms Zawedde said.
Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for ICT and national guidance said that the country must be able to adopt quickly the journey of digital transformation to be able to catch up with the rest of the world.

He noted that the ministry aims at increasing access and usage of ICT infrastructure and services throughout the country and ensuring effective communication of government policies and programmes.
According to him, the ICT Ministry also facilitates the other ministries to ensure that they integrate technology in their operations. 
However, he noted that all these will be impossible if the sector continues to be under funded.

“We have a huge mandate and we are a service Ministry which services the other ministries and agencies of government. Many ministries are budgeting heavily for ICT. The other day I was challenging Ministry of Finance, they had a budget of ICT bigger than the Ministry of ICT and discussed it with the president and I said if we are to be serious let’s be serious. How can a ministry department have a bigger budget than that of ICT?” Dr Baryomunsi said.

Mr Tony Ayo, the deputy chairperson of the parliamentary committee on ICT said the country can only succeed socially and economically if ICT is adequately embraced by the whole society.
He noted that although the resource envelope is small, the ministry should be frugal.