On behalf of Uganda, The Ministry of ICT & National Guidance represented at the Mobile World Congress with Huawei Technologies in Barcelona Spain on 27th Feb to 2nd March 2023.With the theme Accelerate Public Services Digital Transformation. There is a need to acknowledge that the country is transforming at a very fast rate and we need to create an enabling digital vision. There are three aspects to look at: people centric, proactive, and personalization.

 The Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC) is an annual trade show organized by GSMA, dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry. Some of the companies exhibiting included Huawei, ZTE, Orange, Microsoft, Samsung and others. The event is the largest & most influential event for connectivity ecosystem

During the Congress, The Minister of ICT and NG: Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi represented Uganda among the panelist. He discussed the Digital Vision of Uganda emphasizing the achieving of Universal economic progress through Digital Infrastructure.

Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi: “Uganda as a country is trying to catch up with technology and digital transformation considering that it has a young population. Digital transformation is at the center of everything. We can’t transform unless ICT is put at the center of life. Networking and connectivity are the first steps to digital transformation.

Key ICT infrastructures that we are looking out for in digital Uganda: a) national cloud and data center for the data, b) network (we have been working with Huawei to build the national backbone infrastructure), c) solar energy and other resourceful energies in order for us to transform.

Road map for digitalization agenda

1. Intelligence connectivity of the National backbone. We have been working with Huawei in 4 phases and we are starting with the 5^th stage to continue coverage to other parts of the country.
2. E government and creating a cloud platform. We generate a lot of data and hope to have it stored on our own cloud platform.

• Digital application: We have talked about Fourth Industrial Revolution (41R) and we hope to not be left behind. When we speak about big data, block chain, robotics etc. We need to use this to improve the lives of people in Uganda as we transform our country.

There are many benefits and lessons learnt through ICT. Health, education and agriculture can’t be improved unless technology is part of it.”

At the Congress, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT &NG, Dr. Amina Zawedde had the honor to speak on behalf of Uganda at the roundtable conversation with International Telecommunications Union leadership co-hosted by GSMA to discuss opportunities, requirements & challenges to achieve sustainable digital transformation & Universal connectivity.

Lessons in the journey

1. Sufficient political will and commitment to support the agenda
2. Create awareness in the population
3. Government should allocate sufficient budgets for transformation’
4. Embrace digital sovereignty
5. Build partnerships with south operations and triangular operations in order to transfer skills for efficient operations.

By Nalwoga Hafswa Kato