Writer: Godfrey Sserwamukoko. PHPOTO/FILE/COURTESY
The Uganda National Budget for 2024/2025 was approved by Parliament, with a total expenditure of Shs72.136 trillion. The budget consists of recurrent and development expenditure, with the largest portion coming from domestic revenue.
With the GDP projected to grow by six percent this financial year 2023/2024 compared to 5.3 percent in FY2022/2023, this year’s growth of 6 percent is even more impressive compared to sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 3.8 percent, and the global average of 2.9 percent projected for the year 2024.
The current government strategy is to grow and expand Uganda’s economy tenfold from about $50 billion to $500 billion by 2040 anchored on four key growth drivers: (i) agro industrialisation; (ii) tourism development; (iii) mineral development, including oil and gas; and (iv) science, technology and innovation (STI), including Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
It is projected that next Financial Year 2024/2025, Uganda’s GDP will further expand to Shs225.5 trillion. ICT infrastructure is projected by government to drive growth.
Mr Matia Kasaija, the minister of Finance for Uganda, said: “These are the ATMS that are going to mint money for Ugandans next financial year and in the medium term”. My take on government plans is that without ICT, nothing much can profitably be done in chasing our long-term ideals envisioned in NDPIII and Uganda Vision 2040.
First, when you look at the first growth pillar of Agro-industrialisation, everything needed to transform this pillar is ICT-based: for precision farming (data-driven decisions and remote monitoring), for improved market access (e-commerce platforms and access to real-time market information and data.)
For financial inclusion in the agricultural sector (mobile banking and transparent transactions) and for better knowledge sharing and capacity building (online education and provision of extension services propelled by ICT).
If you look at the next growth pillar of Tourism development, ICT remains a game-changer. For example, to achieve this, enhanced information sharing and marketing (online booking platforms & destination marketing), improved traveller experience (mobile apps & ICT-based personalised experiences) or even to increase efficiency and productivity, online reservation systems and data analytics are key. All this cannot be done without ICT tools.
Government has made some strides in the ICT space; during the just-concluded financial year, a total of 4,354 km of optic fibre cable had been laid across the country connecting 1,523 key government service delivery units to the national backbone Infrastructure while the internet penetration in the country increased to 64 percent from 25 percent in 2017 while the share of government services provided online is now at 40 percent, up from 20 percent registered in 2017.
With government investing Shs246 billion towards further development of ICT and implementation of digital transformation through expanding internet connectivity and digital infrastructure across the country, it is my hope these investments complemented by Private Sector Investment in IT Infrastructure development like Raxio Data Centre’s Uptime Tier 3 Certified Data Centre will continue to drive the quick implementation of ICT in national development.
To support this, government is undertaking the rollout of digital services across government to improve the efficiency of service delivery, pushing for transparency and accountability, leveraging Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and ICT to create employment opportunities for young people, digital skilling to increase adoption of digital services; and cyber security, data protection and privacy must continue to ensure the dream of a $500 billion Ugandan economy by 2040 is achieved.
The writer, Godfrey Sserwamukoko, is the General Manager at Raxio Data Centre Uganda
