Government through the National Information Technology Authority Uganda(NITA-U) Last Mile Connectivity Project has successfully completed the implementation of four phases of the NBI project which connected 49 districts and 609 Government offices, ICT Minister Ms. Judith Nabakooba has revealed.
While giving a national update on the on going work at NITA-U, Nabakooba said that Uganda is now a fully-fledged communications hub with the seven major border posts all connected to the NBI and thus strengthening regional ties.
The Minister said that government through NITA-U is currently implementing the Last Mile Connectivity Project aimed at expanding the coverage of the NBI by laying some 732km of fiber optic cable to cover 700 sites with 300 Wi-Fi Hotspots.
“So, far a cumulative total of 337 out of 700 sites including but not limited to Local Governments, hospitals, schools, universities, among others have been connected under the Last Mile Project. Integration of CCTV cameras Government is utilizing the National Optical Fiber Cable Backbone installed along all highways to Kampala to connect upcountry street cameras to Naguru Police Headquarters,” Nabakooba said.
She added that a total of 243 sites shall be connected and at least 14 sites have been added from CCTV Phase 2 of the Project. In a bid to enhance reliability and stability of power supply for the NBI network and also realize savings in energy costs, Nabakooba explained , NITA-U has commenced the Solar PV Project that shall green the NBI through Supply, Installation and Commissioning of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems.
“Regulation and Compliance At least 110 IT service providers have been certified and 75 inspected. Compliance assessments have been conducted for regulated entities in the public and private sector against minimum standards. NITA-U commenced implementation of the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 and has to-date conducted an investigation on a data collector, into allegations of noncompliance with the Act.”
She said that the draft Data Protection and Privacy Regulations, 2020 is under process for publication in the national Gazette. Information Security The National Information Security Framework (NISF) was put in place to protect MDA resources and systems from potential cyber-attacks and associated risks such as cyber terrorism.
NITA-U Authority has also conducted NISF Assessments and developed remediation roadmaps to improve the cybersecurity maturity implementation for sixty-six (66) MDAs. Cyber Security advisories Through the National Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Centre, seventy-seven (77) cyber security advisories have been disseminated to MDAs informing them on the security vulnerabilities and the possible mitigation procedures.
The Minister said that NITA-U carried out one hundred sixty-one (161) extensive cyber security awareness and education sessions across Government and the private sector to improve understanding of information security risks and vulnerabilities.
She said that Child Online Safety Campaign NITA-U entered into a collaboration with the Internet Watch Foundation(IWF) to establish a mechanism for reporting online child sexual abuse content in Uganda by implementing an Online Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Portal (www.stopit.ug) for Uganda to enable citizens report online child sexual abuse content.
The E-Government Services Integration has enabled the seamlessly sharing of data across government systems in a rational, secure, efficient and sustainable manner in order to improve service delivery to citizens as well as allowing quick reporting, planning and decision making in government. Integrations with KCCA, MAAIF, NIRA, URA and URSB have been completed.
Government has also implemented a Unified Messaging and Collaboration system (UMCS) in MDAs and Local Governments (LGs) to improve communication and service delivery.
