The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Hon. Vincent Waiswa Bagiire on behalf of Hon. Frank Tumwebaze — today swore in the new Board of Directors (BoDs) of the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) at a ceremony held at the Ministry’s office.
The new board which happens to be the third installment was revealed at the weekly Cabinet of Ministers meeting last month. They undertook a rigorous multi-sectoral engagement with key stakeholders — with the intention of identifying the best persons with the requisite qualifications and experience.
The board chaired by Mr. John Musinguzi comes at a time NITA-U is transitioning from an infrastructure based model to an IT service delivery.
Bagiire stated that the new board is a supreme governing body of the authority and their responsibility is to ensure that the agency cooperates in accordance to the law, as well as ensure the 5-year strategic plan is followed and all activities are implemented.
“The ministry and the key stakeholders are confident that the new body will assist in the agenda to digitize Uganda,” said Bagiire.
He added that since the board is new in the ICT industry, they have all been equipped with the knowledge in the sector to be aware of what is going on.
“The new board now has knowledge of what’s going on in the ICT sector and have associated with the activities and actions in the sector,” he concluded.
Musinguzi affirmed the board’s commitment towards strengthening ICT services delivery as one of the key fundamentals required to harness opportunities for faster economic growth.
“In the next five years, we shall see services being delivered much faster and more affordably. This will bridge the gap between government and the citizen by increasing transparency and accountability,” said Musinguzi.
He concluded his remarks thanking the outgoing board chairperson Dr. Tusubira and all out-going board member and staff that have driven the agenda to transform lives through ICT.
The Executive Director & Board Secretary NITA-U; Mr. James Saaka pledged to stay true to the firms strategic themes. This include; service delivery excellence, operational excellence and relationship excellence.
“Our goal is to ensure that 80% of Government services in the key priority sectors are available online and accessed by 60% of the target population,” said Saaka.
The new board is chaired by John R. Musinguzi with NITA-U Executive Director, Mr. James Saaka as the secretary and Dr. Amina Zawedde, Dr. Annabella Habinka Basaza Ejiri, Dr. Albert Richards Otete, Mr. Julius Peter Torach, and Hon. James Kabajo Kyewalabye as board members.
Some of the projects NITA-U is currently working on include;
- A Tier III National Data Centre and Disaster Recovery (DR) sites to provide centralized hosting services, Data Centre services and Disaster Recovery (DR) services for all Government data and applications.
- Phase Four of the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) to connect the internet to the West Nile and Karamoja regions.
- Integrating all MDAs/LG ICT systems to ease service delivery.
- Following the recent announcement, the firm is also working on connecting internet to roughly 96 tourist sites country wide.
