Promote ICT research and Innovation in Uganda - NITA director

By Vivian Agaba

THE National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) Executive Director, James Saaka has called upon government to invest in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to strengthen the technical foundations of engineers and scientists in the country.

"Uganda should invest in research if it is to become a regional ICT innovation hub," Saaka stated.

Speaking at the Pan African conference on Science, Computing and Telecommunications (PACT) at Fairway Hotel on Monday, Saaka said this will enhance the development of home-grown ICT solutions for domestic and export market.

This, he said will stop the country from being net importers of technologies from the outside world.

According to Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) report of 2012, spending on research and innovations in Uganda fluctuates between 0.3% and 0.6% of the Gross domestic product (GDP) per annum.

Saaka also urged government to gazette software standards to facilitate the purchase and adoption of locally developed software in order to promote home-based products.

The two-day conference is organised by Makerere University, College of Computing and Information Sciences.

It was attended by researchers in the field of Science, Computing and Telecommunications from Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Senegal, Namibia and the host country Uganda. 

The State Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Thembo Nyombi said that the conference supports active productive research that seeks to encourage the emergence of functionally skilled technocrats within the continent.

"PACT develops strong skills leading to new small and medium scale enterprises on the African continent," he added.

He added that in a bid to encourage research & innovations in the computing and telecommunications sectors, the government through the Ministry of ICT has built institutions to coordinate, promote and monitor the development of Information Technology (IT)  in the context of social and economic development of the country.

Nyombi also stated that the institutions such as Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) established a research support program in 2011 to facilitate the creation of new knowledge to drive the development and usage of communications services towards the achievement of sustainable development in Uganda.

He added that PACT helps to ensure that research conducted in Uganda is responsive to industry needs or sector development needs including informing government policy and legislation.

Gilbert Maiga, the dean School of Computing and Informatics Technology at Makerere University said that PACT helps in knowledge exchange among various research entities.

"It is important to organise such conferences in Africa and bring researchers of different entities together to share results of their researches. This creates room for networking, enabling researchers to share knowledge and new innovative ideas and enabling Africans to solve some of their own problems," said Maiga.

Maiga said that some Africans have done good and useful researches which stay on the bookshelves because the researchers have not been given platform to showcase their researches.

However, with conferences like PACT, African researchers have an opportunity to publish and make their work known to the world for use.