“It is the most expensive in the ministry. We got it through a Chinese loan, but it had a difficult birth with hiccups,” said Awori at the recent handover of office to Ruhakana Rugunda.
The backbone plan that entails laying over 2,100 kilometres of fibre optic cable has had its share of scandals, from reported financial mismanagement, wrong use of equipment and local contractors who could not do quality work and some of the work had to be repeated.
The Government secured a $106m loan from China’s Exim Bank in 2006 to undertake the project. The ambitious project is expected to connect all ministries in a single wide area network, establish a government data centre as well as connect 28 major districts.
It is expected to ease service delivery, cut unnecessary public expenditure, especially on transport and reduce poverty. Rugunda said the Government looks at the ICT ministry as an important sector because of its contribution to job creation.
“Technology supports humanity’s efforts to advance. We would like to help Uganda move forward,” he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): David Mugabe
Quelle/Source: The New Vision, 21.06.2011
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