ICT INNOVATIONS AND PRODUCTS PRESENT HUGE OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESSES AND YOUNG UGANDANS-MINISTER NABAKOOBA

By Our Senior Writer

The development of viable ICT innovations and  products presents huge opportunities for well –positioned ICT companies because Uganda has a predominantly  young population were more than 60% of the citizens are below 18 years of age and one of the fastest growing middle class in the world, Minister of ICT and NG, Ms. Judith Nabakoba has stated.

She was last evening presiding over the rebranding of Liquid Telecom  to Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

Nabakooba argued that a young population and a fast growing middle class are a recipe for increased consumption of telecommunication services and other related electronic services such as social media and  e-commerce apps.

She said that given the ministry’s  mandated to provide overall regulatory and technical leadership on all ICT matters in the country, relevant cyber laws and policies have been enacted  to govern and safeguard the use of ICTs. Key among these laws and policies is the National Broadband Policy.

The policy sets out to encourage both government and the private operators to collaborate in the development and deployment of broadband infrastructure to enable connectivity for all, promote digital inclusion and affordability of ICTs.

Nabakooba further stated that  the national ICT policy prioritizes ICT infrastructure sharing among the broadband connectivity providers, which ultimately translates into reduced operational costs thus making ICT services to become more affordable.

“Given the conducive environment put in place by government, it gives me a lot of pleasure to be here today launching a world-class brand that is going to complement the efforts of government to ensure the availability and access to high quality ICT services,” She said adding that there will be a reciprocal need for diverse services from the private sector as exemplified by the new service portfolio of Liquid Intelligent Technologies that covers datacenters, cloud computing and cyber security.  

She implore Liquid Intelligent Technologies and other service providers to make use of the innovative young technologists and tech savvy consumers that have increased –largely due to  the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance – National ICT Innovations Support Programme (NIISP) that has been running for three years to-date.

Some of the major milestones registered by the innovators under the ICT Ministry’s NIISP include- an E-government procurement system that manages all public procurement processes from planning to contracting , an electronic document and records management system that eliminates the need for moving physical files in an organization and a land documentation and valuation system that eases the process of public land acquisition for infrastructure development.

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