The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and National Guidance has justified Uganda’s campaign to promote the country as ‘Africa’s Innovation Powerhouse’ including the availability of labour for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). 

Godfrey Kabyanga Baluku, the state minister for ICT said that the ministry had launched the ‘Discover Africa’s Innovation Powerhouse’ campaign, tagging it on labour availability, recent achievements in internet connectivity, planned reduction in internet prices and an enabling environment, among others. 

Kabyanga said in a statement that currently Uganda has over 30,000 youth leaving Universities and other higher institutions of learning each year, who he says are fluent in English and are ICT literate, suitable to take up jobs under the BPO scheme. 

“Uganda is a prime country for BPO owing to various factors,” he said. 

He enumerated the factors that put Uganda ahead in the region in the BPO campaign, having one of the youngest populations in Africa.

He said the country has 69% of its population under the age of 24 years and majority of these are of high quality in terms of literacy.

He said Uganda ranks high in terms of employability of the workforce, according to the World Economic Forum 2018 Global Competitiveness Index, which puts the country on a scale of 1 to 7 (7 excellent). 

“Uganda reaches 4.4 out of 7 on the ease of finding skilled workers, including on sourcing talent with digital skills,” he explains.

According to Kabyanga, Uganda has been ranked in the ‘top percentile among African countries linked to and soaring in digital potential in line with Business Process Outsourcing’. 

He recently presented the paper to the Tourism, Trade and Investment Forum at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Deira in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates before businesspeople.  

In terms of internet connectivity, he said, Uganda has achieved a lot. 

“Coverage is predominantly provided through wireless networks, especially mobile platforms,” he explained, adding that internet subscriptions in Uganda have crossed the 29m mark. 

“This suggests that nearly one in every two Ugandans has internet access. There is significant coverage of 4G and 3G across the nation”. 

He said the government, through the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance, has over the years invested in establishing secure infrastructure and information systems through the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) fibre cable. 

“The ministry has created a secure high-speed network that connects most of Uganda, so far, we have built 4,000km of fibre and in the next three years, we plan on connecting the entire nation with more optic fibre,” he explains.  

He said Uganda’s fibre, the NBI, is providing network connectivity across 53 districts to 1,353 government sites that include offices, schools, hospitals, courts, Universities, police, and local governments, which are now able to utilize high-speed connectivity and access over 333 e-Government services. 

“The Government fibre has facilitated regional connectivity across 10 border points via Entebbe, Vurra, Oraba, Goli, Mpondwe, Malaba, Busia, Mutukula, Katuna, and Elegu, thus fostering trade and cross border relations,” he further explains. 

He believes that by creating this nationwide network and spurring the development of e-government services, the Government through the NBI/EGI has contributed to the ease of doing business across the region. 

The ministry also says the cost of the internet was being worked.

“In order to reduce what would be considered impediments to setting up BPO or innovation, the government of Uganda has lowered the cost of internet and in this financial year 2021/2022, the Government shall reduce the cost to $25 for every 1Mbps of dedicated internet,” he said, adding that the Government’s target for BPO/Innovation is to buy internet at $5 for every 1Mbps of dedicated internet.  

The enabling environment is also a strong point for innovation, where regulation can be a hindrance. 

“In Uganda, we have ensured that the regulation we have implemented is catalytic. Our laws and regulations are agile, iterative, and collaborative,” he added, saying recently, the United Nations Capital Development Fund ranked Uganda 12th in Africa, with a score above the regional average in technology and governance. 

He said UNCDF indicated that the performance of Uganda’s policy and regulatory environment as assessed by the Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES) is consistent with other global comparative sources.