Muni University gets regional ICT innovation hub
May 07, 2024
Kajobe assured of the university's commitment to co-operating with the ministry in developing the ICT infrastructure, CT utilisation, and harnessing the benefits for growth.
An innovator from Muni Girls Secondary School explaining their soya milk yoghurt innovation during the exhibition. (Photos by Robert Adiga)
Robert Adiga
Journalist @New Vision
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The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance has launched a regional information and communications technology (ICT) innovation hub at Muni University.
The hub established under the National Initiative for ICT Support Programme (NIISP) follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the ICT ministry and the university in 2021.
The regional ICT innovation hub worth shillings 250 million was launched on Friday, May 3, 2024, and is aimed at tackling bottlenecks to creating a digital ecosystem by promoting the development and deployment of applications to create an open ecosystem in Uganda that shall enable the Government, companies, and individuals to innovate and reach new markets. The ICT room at Muni University
Director of Graduate Training, research, and Innovation at Muni University Prof. Robert Kajobe says the university has been collaborating with the ministry for the establishment of the innovation hub due to the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in accessing critical resources and getting guidance and internship required as they sought to expand their businesses.
Meanwhile, Muni University vice-chancellor associate professor Simon Anguma Katrini said the key focus areas of the university in the MoU were to host the innovation hub, build technical expertise to spur innovation through the hub and support commercialisation of the innovations from the hub while the ICT ministry was to provide technical, administrative and financial support towards the establishment of the hub.
He assured of the university's commitment to co-operating with the ministry in developing the ICT infrastructure, CT utilisation, and harnessing the benefits for growth.
“The shillings 250 million provided by the ICT ministry was appropriately utilised to set the hub and the importance of ICT in national development cannot be over emphasised and we are ready to corporate with the ministry on matters of ICT infrastructure development and harness the growth towards the vision 2040,” Anguma said.
According to him, the MoU for the project was only for three years as he called for an extension of the project to expand the services to the overwhelming number of innovators.
One of the priority sectors
Koboko North Member of Parliament Musa Noah, who represented the chairperson parliamentary committee on ICT and National Guidance during the launch, described the ICT sector as one of four sectors the Government is prioritising for investment to transform the country’s economy as he assured of the committee’s commitment in increasing the funding for the ICT sector.
“As the parliamentary committee of this ministry, we are aware that, the sector grapples with inadequate funding as it was only allocated 0.3 percent of the total budget and we are working round the clock to ensure that funding for the ICT sector is increased, we understand the important role played by the sector in the development of the economy,” Musa said.
More support to the region
Dr Amina Zawedde, the permanent secretary ICT ministry, pledged to continue supporting innovation in the region through Muni University by renewing the current MoU and ensuring the establishment of an innovation hub with a bigger capacity to serve the entire region and beyond.
Zawedde added that the ministry, through funding from the World Bank, will ensure the provision of free internet bandwidth for public institutions in the region including Muni University.
“With partnership with the private sector, academia, and development partners, we shall establish a bigger innovation hub with bigger capacity and build the capacity of the innovators in this region to reach out to thousands of entrepreneurs and we have funding from the World Bank to connect free internet to institutions and Muni University will be one of those benefiting,” Zawedde said.
During the launch, various innovators across the region exhibited their innovations to the officials after attaining skills and support from the business incubation hub set by the university.
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