The project has so far cost Uganda 64 million Euros, besides another Shs 118bn needed for the operation of the National Security Information System.
Mühlbauer Technology Group, a German company, was contracted in March 2010 to deliver equipment (software and hardware) that would be used to establish a biometric identity management system for an accurate national identity register.
Authorities in the House are hatching a multi-million deal to acquire high-class handheld computing gadgets for MPs—the tablet computers. The move will promote e-governance using the magical device, the iPad, and see MPs do away with carrying bulky documents into sessions.
While Section 29 of the House Rules of Procedure says sufficient copies of a paper to be tabled shall be made and distributed to members, technocrats told Daily Monitor that the Rules of Procedure will be amended to cater for the use of iPad where some files will be shared in soft form.
Read more: UG: Hi-Tech time in Parliament as papers give way to iPads
The second phase of the project comes more than four years after the first phase of a US$106 million National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) and the Electronic Government Infrastructure (EGI) was commissioned in 2007.
While presenting the research findings of 2011 information economic report yesterday at Makerere University, he said that the research finding reflect frequent absence of ICT dimension from Private Sector development strategies.
This in turn hinders the sector’s competitiveness, Ndiwalana noted. He added that there is need for government to create environments for greater ICT adoption for private sector development.
Read more: UG: Private sector urged to use ICT for development
Funded by the Export-Import bank of China and with technical support from Huawei, the project has faced a couple of delays over the last three years. The recent launch of the two phases will now see the cable head to upcountry places as demand for data services grows. The project is run by the National Information Technology Authority of Uganda, which is under the ministry of ICT.