ICT? Forget It!
The Information Communication Technology has finally been murdered and buried. Hail Uganda Communications Commission and Ministry of Works, Housing and COMMUNICATION. Ive not come across any single home in Uganda that has an Internet connection for domestic other than commercial use! AMAZING ISNT IT? Uganda it is said has the most liberal ICT regime. That is rubbish here are the facts. A logical solution to Ugandas ICT impasse is to have a commission of inquiry into the entire communications sub sector. And we must all strive to that end and bring the dirt into the open. A banker with a complete computer donation from South Africa asks, me what to do to provide his kids with ICT at home? The prices are ridiculous he cant afford however much he and her wife likes! A senior lecturer of geography and planning, asks me to sell off her computer box, it is a burden she tried to get connected. The computer in her words, is a money sucker, she hates it. Several schools have taken on the fad but computers, old or new are still in boxes or found humble corners were they keep them unused. A chemical engineer wonders if there is away he could go around the terrible connection fees. Yet his work in data bank will offer him flexibility to work at a distance, as his work place cover the entire breadth of Uganda. An electronic engineer tried it a month and felt ICT was for the rich. The ministry of ICT will with same parameters fail terribly. Another near workers house has a terrible experience, he does not want to reveal to me! A lawyer thinks with his earnings it is a luxury. He laughs a lot when I talk about ICT. A number of private and public entities have similar experiences. Along Kampala Bombo road were computer wares are peddled, not more than 5 units a month leave the shop shelves, if they sell at all. They are turning to digital cameras and flat screen televisions. Ownership of a computer despite zero taxation has not produced any positive effects. But the ICT rich are getting richer on a small clientele of consumers paying in dollars! When the dollar economy invaded this country, people morals were corrupted to shameless level. These types today, claim to be the harbinger they are not. ICT usability in Uganda is only expanding in medium and large-scale entities, basically owned by foreigners. For the common Ugandan, they can as well forget ICT. Amazingly, American and European weather stations now manned from the skies offer ready meteorological data about the entire breadth of Uganda while Ugandans themselves know almost nothing. Travellers coming from Europe certainly overwhelmed by the beauties of the Nile and the hinterland, did a lot of studies in biology, physics etc. They did not have Internet linked digital cameras nor did they have telephone to communicate to their countrymen about newfound knowledge. Is there no need to reach out to Uganda communities who cannot travel to distant regions? It is amazing that the Ituri populations have not exploded. Ugandans would share their scientific demographic control secrets! Uganda Public Communication sectors are in shambles and end users dont seem to see the problem. Amazingly so, Ugandas Public Communication Infrastructures have not designed categories of data according to need and want or to what types of data given institutions establishments. Hospitals for example need a Public Communications Infrastructure to transfer particular forms of data. It might be medical data i.e. x-ray or ultra sound images, epidemiological data etc. Its such an expensive venture for a country without enough resources to transfer data. Had the nation utilised its facilities optimally at Uganda Telecoms or at Uganda Broadcasting Corporation though UCC regulation etc, it would offer ready tailored courses online saving huge amounts of tax funds that could instead go to buying other medical amenities i.e. beds and sundries etc. UCC must be in limbo as well. It is a dead ended entity. No we have MTN, CELTEL, CAFES and they regulate dont they? They call for investors in communication facilities for rural regions and that is it things start to happen! There would be no need to have major referral hospitals, as medical specialist would utilise Uganda Broadcasting networks to offer real time specialised medical treatment at a distance. Uganda as a nation state, should apply its communication infrastructures to this endeavour. Major communication network loop, solving standing problems of information distribution will be very simple to attain. Department directors will for instance logon computers to get specific data that regards their specialised trade. Who cares? The Ministry of Works, Housing and Communication for example is the blind leading the blind. Huge amounts of money wasted were online data delivery will solve the problem. It is pitiful that technology has not been utilised to its fullest extent in a resource poor country. They are making money on the skeletons of their fellow countrymen , women and children. What is UCC correction in Uganda shilling annually? Do you know how those monies have been allocated to the media and communication sector for the past seven years? With those funds stacked somewhere , Uganda aviation authority was recently shopping for as they wrote in their advert for more early warning weather gargets. Something they could not do through the help of UCC as an issue partly related to communications technology. All districts in Uganda that are connected on to the World Wide Web are under donor funding or supported with donor funding 4 to 5 them through the National Planning Authority. The district portal initiated by UCC to bring on board all districts also collapsed. UCC probably has a far better understanding of the reasons as to why that happened. That is the way it is in Uganda. Yet the Optical fibre has been laid by MTN up to Masaka and hopefully that belonging to the former Uganda posts is now stoping in Jinja where I hear a data bank facility is located. Uganda has no implementable communication policy but rather depends on the private sector to do its job. Indeed. Makerere University was indebted to UTL & MTN to the tune of more than 600 million Shs and hence forced to reduce it bandwidth to 64kb or somewhere there. A government owned university! Most universities are using a wireless connection to the wide world web. Most hospitals under current arrangement have no chance to be online. Private competitions dont go where there is no optimal usability. The Internet has created millioners as NRM political millioners through its robbery economy. Exactly the same trend used by UCC to spread the Internet in rural areas i.e. communication centres that have basically low adaptability. A good number of internet café are locate in Kampala a few of them not exceeding 10 per location are in Jinja, Mbarara, Kabale, Arua etc. basically started by foreigners. That compared to Stanbic bank Automated Teller Machines spread, it can be assumed UCC for Internet technology proliferation into the country. It is not known how much UCC earns on her activities nation wide in dollars and what those dollars can do. All schools that have been connected under the schoolnet facilitation are doing well albeit under the strain of the dollar Internet economy that is sustaining Uganda marionettes. Citizens rise up to save a nation . Bwanika Senior (Consultant & Research, www.idrconsulting.com ) Bwanika ________ http://www.idrconsulting.com --> for your consultancy needs _______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---------------------------------------
