Government of Uganda designed the National ICT Initiatives Support Programme (NIISP) to facilitate the creation of an ICT Innovation ecosystem and marketplace for Ugandan innovative digital products

The growth of the ICT innovation ecosystem in Uganda has mainly been private sector led with minimal direct support from government. Unfortunately, this approach has not been very successful and it has created standalone and closed software applications that have not promoted innovation at a national level.

The NIISP tackles bottlenecks to creating a digital ecosystem by promoting the development and deployment of applications to create an open ecosystem in Uganda that shall enable the government, companies and individuals to innovate and reach new markets.

Goals

  1. Encourage innovation by providing opportunities to create applications to support service delivery;
  2. Generate highly skilled jobs and wealth for individuals and companies that create applications for both government and the private sector; and
  3. Improve the use of government data for ICT innovation and application development.

The NIISP shall champion the creation of the ICT Innovation ecosystem to facilitate the growth and development of the software applications and innovations industry. The NIISP will focus on encouraging the creation of easy to consume and highly marketable digital products.

Specific objectives

  1. To provide systematic and sustainable support to national ICT innovators
  2. To promote ICT products, services and solutions for improved service delivery as part of a wider digital ecosystem.
  3. To establish and operationalize ICT innovation parks.
  4. To promote local electronics manufacturing and assembly.

More details at the NIISP site