Government MDAs to Receive Laptops to Enable Adoption of e-Service Delivery

The Minister for ICT and National Guidance, Hon. Judith Nabakooba has today announced that the Ministry through the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) is going to hand over 700 laptops to different government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in an effort to enable the adoption of e-services delivery.

“Today, am happy to announce that the Ministry through NITA-U under the Regional Communications Infrastructure Program is handing over 700 laptops to different government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as a major effort by my Ministry to encourage a paperless approach to work by scaling up the use of e-services,” Nabakooba said during a press brief held at the Ministry’s head offices in Kampala.

This is in line with the Digital Uganda Vision which aims to electronically deliver a variety of government and private services in various fields.

Nabakooba noted that the several countries globally are adopting to the paperless way of doing work because of the environmental benefits it has to offer. Therefore, by cutting down on the number of papers bought, offices are indirectly saving more trees that are critical to the environment. Hence, e-Services making it possible for service providers to rely less on paper products to go digital.

“We all know that most of our paper products are made out raw materials from trees —yet trees are important for our environment. It is because of these and many more reasons that the Ministry of ICT is seriously encouraging all government entities to adopt the paperless culture,” said Nabakooba. Adding that internet led services have been critical in the growth of the country’s economy and have been critical in the delivery of government services during the Covid-19 pandemic when physical contact was and is still considered a health risk.

In order to facilitate the paperless culture, the Ministry through NITA-U implemented the Last Mile Connectivity Project that will see 700 government entities connected to the National Backbone Infrastructure and eGovernment Infrastructure (NBI/EGI) project. As of today, 519 out of 700 government entities including but not limited to local governments, hospitals, schools, universities, among others have been connected under the Last Mile Project.

The Last Mile Connectivity project which is laying approximately 732km of fiber optic cable, aims at achieving it’s full potential through connecting internet to the final consumer for an affordable price. Since the implementation of the NBI/EGI project, the cost of internet of across government entities has progressively reduced from per Mbps monthly USD$70 per Mbps monthly. The cost is projected to drop further to USD$20.

Nabakooba notes that the internet cuts by more than half the cost of doing government business.

NITA-U has been at the forefront of enforcing and pushing for e-Service delivery across government entities. Government through NITA-U made an effort in ensuring automation of service delivery for government MDAs which has resulted into the development information systems to support provision of e-Services to the public.

Systems such as Uganda Revenue Authority’s e-Tax, Kampala Capital City Authority’s e-Citie, National Forestry Authority’s e-Licensing, Uganda Registration Services Bureau’s e-Licensing, to mention a few have proceeded to demonstrate great value in public service delivery.

Nabakooba has now called upon the public to join the government in this campaign of entrenching the paperless way of doing work.