Prime
Nita-U yields to Caesar in govt data portal fight
ICT minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, listens to a presentation at a previous conference in 2023. Uganda Telecommunications Corporation Limited will soon start managing operations of the National Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Under the new deal, UTCL will now take over commercialisation of the fiber system.
The National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (Nita-U) has agreed to handover operations of the National Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure (NBI/EGI) to the newly Uganda Telecommunications Corporation Limited (UTCL), brand-named Utel .
The Nita-U executive director, Dr Hatwib Mugasa, in a July 16 letter to executives of UTCL and ROWARD Capital Commercial Broker LLC, confirmed readiness to handover the infrastructure.
The Dubai-based, ROWARD Capital, are the new investors in UTCL.
“Reference is made to the letter from the H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda dated 24th June; Ref: PO/2.0. Following the NBI Transition Strategy Workshop on 16th July 2024, we wish to confirm our readiness to hand over the NBI to Utel,” he wrote.
Dr Mugasa further indicated that they had also undertaken consultations with Kenyan company, Soliton Telmec Ltd, “who have also agreed to cooperate to ensure a smooth transition to UTel.”
NITA-U is, therefore, ready and willing to hand over the NBI to UTCL immediately or at such a time as you may appoint,” the letter, also copied to the ICT minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka and the Presidential Principal Private Secretary, Ms Gloria Asio, reads in part.
NITA-U is the statutory body mandated to coordinate government IT services.
The development comes after President Museveni on June 24 read a riot act for NITA-U and ICT ministry officials to immediately close the UTCL-ROWARD merger within 21 days by July 14.
In a letter to Dr Baryomunsi, the President expressed shock that “investors who want to rescue UTL have not yet got an agreement from the government.”
“They have now told me that the government is refusing to give support on two factors: the income and staffing levels of the private company that had been made to run our National Backbone without my knowledge and the refusal by the government to assure them of the monopoly of telephone and internet services,” Mr Museveni wrote.
He added: “The claim by NITA-U that information is confidential is wrong if not dishonest. NITA-U allowed somebody to use our national backbone without my knowledge. What was he doing with the platform? What is he earning, what rent was he paying to NITA-U and why? I demand to know why anybody would have a problem with this.”
The transfer of the NBI to UTCL was among the key terms the government committed to in the December 22 agreement. Other terms included issuance of a national telecommunications operator licence, negotiation of shareholders and support agreements, and timely modification of the company’s registration at Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB).
These terms were supposed to be completed within three months, ending March 22 to facilitate the ROWARD-UTCL marriage. In turn, ROWARD would invest $25m (approx. Shs95b) during the 90 day-period, and stagger another $200m (Shs756b) over the next three years within the new company domiciled on March 24.
ROWARD owns a 60 percent stake in the new company, and the ministries of ICT and Finance are co-shareholders in the government’s 40 percent stake.
In 2006, the government acquired $106m from China’s Export-Import (EXIM) Bank for the optical fibre cable to link all government offices and the supply and installation of communication equipment to enable the transmission of voice, data and conferencing services.
Phase one of the project was completed in June 2008 and involved laying of optical fiber cable within Kampala and Entebbe to link 27 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies and laying of 168km of fibre linking Kampala to Mukono, Bombo and Jinja.
Phase Two ran from 2009 to 2013 encompassing laying 1,400km and construction of a Data Centre, at Statistics House in Kampala. Phase Three ran from 2016 to 2017 covering 756km of high-speed optical fibre cable from Kampala to Western Uganda and the borders with Tanzania and Rwanda.
Phase four was funded by the World Bank to a tune of $75m from 2016 to 2022 to extend ICT backbone to the West Nile districts and border points with DRC and South Sudan.
The NBI uses the G.652 D type and is the world’s most widely used fibre for huge capacity optical transmission; this system was used because it favours and is suitable for upgrading of transmission equipment if ever needed.
Under the new deal, UTCL will now take over commercialisation of the fiber system, as a hanging fruit, as it navigates the cut throat competition among the existing mobile network operators for the provision and extension of broadband services.
Meanwhile, the Daily Monitor understands that owing to the turmoil brewing inside NITA-U, the Jinja Data Centre, an annex of the Data Centre at Statistics House, broke down recently for at least a week. The Shs43b Jinja Data Center serves as cloud for all government e-services data putting the said data at risk.
