The government has announced that refugee groups living in Uganda will benefit from the universal digital acceleration program Uganda will be implementing starting this year.

Speaking at the MTN’s last engagement of the annual 21 Days of Y’ello Care on Friday (yesterday, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance Dr. Amina Zawedde said that there is a project by the World Bank (WB) on Universal Digital Acceleration point which will be for supporting refugees to have access to the digital economy.

“One of the most recent projects from the WB point at supporting refugees’ camps to be connected by the internet, it is a 5-year project with various components, there is a component on supporting refugee camps and the last component will look at last mile connection,” Dr. Zawedde stated.

According to Dr. Zawedde, the expanded connectivity will also strengthen the digital inclusion of host communities and refugees by improving the availability of digital infrastructure and tackling demand-side factors like digital skills, affordability of internet connectivity, and accessibility of digital services. 

MTN donated an ICT lab to Refuge and Hope International. The MTN Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sylvia Mulenge said that the telecom company would empower refugees through equipping them with the enabling entrepreneurial skills by skilling and mentoring.

According to a February 2020 report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), Uganda currently hosts over 1.4m refugees, with almost 80,000 living in the capital city of Kampala