Engineers call for smart innovations to match global development standards

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Uganda should embrace smart engineering innovations if it is to match the global development standards, the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) Registrar, Eng. Ronald Namugera has noted.

According to Namugera, engineering is not a peripheral sector but the engine driving Uganda’s transformation agenda.

“Industrialisation cannot be realised without reliable energy systems, efficient transport networks, industrial parks, ICT backbone infrastructure, water systems, and modern urban planning. These are engineering-driven interventions,” he said.

Namugera’s message is contained in a statement that the ERB issued ahead of the World Engineering Day 2026, due on March 4.

Proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the World Engineering Day recognises the vital contribution of engineers to sustainable development globally.

Namugera said this year’s theme; Smart Engineering for a Sustainable Future through Innovation and Digitalisation, strikes a particularly strong chord, as policymakers and professionals push to align infrastructure development with the country’s long-term growth targets.

According to Namugera, the 2026 theme speaks directly to Uganda’s national development aspirations under the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP) IV, the long-term blueprint Uganda Vision 2040, and the Government’s ten-fold growth strategy. 

The ERB, together with the Ministry of Works and Transport are spearheading the national celebrations that will run from March 1 to March 5.

Activities will include the Annual Engineers’ Run and a Sports Gala at Kyambogo Cricket Oval, a Youth Engineers’ Webinar, an Engineers’ Conference at Hotel Africana in Kampala, and an oath-taking ceremony for newly registered engineers at the ERB offices in Kyambogo, Kampala.

Namugera described the World Engineering Day as a platform to reaffirm that engineering is not peripheral, but central, to the successful implementation of NDP IV.

He stressed that engineers play a multi-dimensional role from designing and maintaining roads, bridges, railways and utilities, to driving industrial value addition, deploying smart systems, and ensuring climate resilience.

“As the Engineers Registration Board, we underscore that strong professional regulation and sustained capacity building are essential to guarantee that Uganda’s infrastructure and industrial projects meet the highest standards of quality, safety, and sustainability,” he said. 

Discipline, Standards and Public Safety

Dr Eng. Apollo Buregyeya, a civil and structural engineer and lecturer at Makerere University, underscored the practical and ethical dimensions of the profession.

“Engineering is not drawings in offices. It is safe roads, reliable power, clean water, durable schools, functional hospitals, and industries that employ our people,” he said.

He added that engineering is also about discipline. “Doing things right the first time, maintaining what we build, and putting public safety above shortcuts,” he noted.

Buregyeya called for investment in the full engineering ecosystem, including strong standards, ethical and patriotic procurement, quality assurance, research, local manufacturing of construction inputs, and skills development for young engineers and technicians. 

“We must also respect engineers who spend time on site, because that is where quality is protected, and value is saved,” he emphasised.

Eng. Dr Sam Stewart Mutabazi, a transport policy and planning expert, described the World Engineering Day as an opportunity to appreciate one of the most critical professions shaping human progress.

“The World Engineering Day is important because it helps us to focus and appreciate one of the most critical professions that help humanity to live better lives through infrastructure,” he said.

Mutabazi added; “Apart from God, engineers are the world’s best creators. They create things from nothing. They are real co-creators with God.”