KAMPALA: Ministry of Information Communication Technology & National Guidance, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), on Wednesday hosted an interactive workshop whose purpose was to start the effort to define Uganda’s Long-Term Roadmap on Digital Transformation.
With representation from the private sector, civil society, development partners, and the public sector, the engagement sought to put in place a realistic and relevant roadmap that the Government of Uganda will follow in the national effort to digitize Uganda.
UNDP under its Digitalization, Innovation, and Smart Cities (DISC) program is in collaboration with the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance and Cente-Tech to develop a
robust Digital Transformation Roadmap to strengthen the implementation of the enabling policies and laws and accelerate Uganda’s Digital Revolution, and develop complementary strategies i.e a big data utilization strategy and a pilot digital skills acceleration program.
Commenting during the workshop, Cente-Tech’s Chief Technology Officer, Peter Kahiigi said, “Digital transformation is accelerating in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The future is arriving faster than expected. At the same time, income inequality and related disparities have increased, stoking social discontent”.
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“For us to realize the promise of today’s smart revolution, policies need to be smarter too. The roadmap we are creating will be more responsive to change to fully capture potential gains in productivity and economic growth and address rising inequality as technological disruptions create winners and losers.” – Mr. Kahiigi concluded.
Innocent Ejolu, UNDP Partnerships, Innovation & Development Solutions Specialist, in his remarks said, “This roadmap will present an overarching vision for a well-connected Uganda that delivers on the opportunities presented by various technologies, limits the risks whilst stipulating how the vision can effectively be achieved”.
Representing the Permanent Secretary – Ministry of ICT & National Guidance, Amos Mpungu, welcomed this effort to define a roadmap that will deliver long-term Digital
Transformation in Uganda. “As a nation, we have various initiatives that are being undertaken with the solitary objective – to digitize Uganda. This effort to aggregate the efforts into a single blueprint is needed now and we are happy to lead this, in partnership with the various stakeholders across the ICT sector”
The full-day workshop seeks to engage and consult key stakeholders and identify the current baseline of inclusivity, and digital penetration in Uganda, and identify opportunities; also putting into consideration the current national context for digital skilling in the country’s education ecosystem.
Once curated, the Digital Transformation Roadmap will:
i. Enable the various digital agendas as a country to be achieved
ii. Enable streamlined and structured investment in the Ugandan digital space
iii. Enable utilization of big data generated every day to mitigate risks
iv. Enable the digital skills acceleration program in schools around the country
After the workshop, Cente-Tech’s Head of Product & Business Development and Customer Experience – Steven Kirenga, thanked UNDP and the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance for uniting the ICT sector’s major players.
“At Cente-Tech, our mission is to ‘deliver innovation that matters to enable and inspire growth.’ Therefore, our partnership with the Ministry of ICT and UNDP is a natural one as we believe that digital transformation is the only way to achieve equitable and inclusive social & economic transformation in Uganda,” Mr. Kirenga added.
Cente-Tech, a technology company that is a member of Centenary Group, alongside other entities like Centenary Bank and Centenary Foundation being a subsidiary of Centenary Group, Cente Tech’s efforts are geared towards transforming the lives of the people and promoting environmental conservation through financial inclusion and innovative business solutions.
