Government is seeking parliamentary approval to borrow US$75m (sh260b) to improve internet connectivity and broadband services in line with regional initiatives.
Parliament's committee on the National Economy considered the request to borrow the funds from the World Bank to finance the Regional Communication Infrastructure Program (RCIP).
Committee chairman Xavier Kyooma Akampurira said the loan is intended to accelerate the rollout of the terrestrial backbone infrastructure to ensure access to the submarine cables across East and Southern Africa to the region.
"It is also intended to finance the purchase of broadband capacity (domestic, regional and international) for use by governments and institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals. It is also intended to finance the implementation of e-Government applications, extension of access to ICT technologies services in rural area," Akampurira said.
The East and South African region is relatively well connected on the coast via submarine cables but landlocked countries like Uganda still lack reliable and affordable access to the international capacity. There are limitations regarding domestic connectivity but through Uganda's National Backbone Infrastructure it is slowly being addressed
The ICT sector has grown strongly in Uganda over the last five years but the sector is hampered by infrastructure challenges. The sector is composed of telecommunications, postal, informal technology and broadcasting services. Large portions of the North East and North West experience low connectivity to the Internet.
The committee approved the loan but urged government to improve its implementation of the project and related projects in a speedy and efficient manner. It also urged the government to improve governance structure of the project.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): John Odyek
Quelle/Source: The New Vision, 29.11.2015
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