By Our Reporter
Increased awareness, integration and adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Uganda, both by government and the private sector is key to improving service delivery. It will reduce cost of public service delivery as well as improve competitiveness of Uganda’s ICT and ICT Enabled Services (ITES). This is according to Frank Tumwebaze, Uganda’s ICT and National Guidance Minister.
He was speaking at the 7th African Conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons-IDLELO 7 at Speke Resort Munyonyo where he said, “As Uganda seeks to increase her share of the global ICT/ITES, there is need to find new ways of doing business and FOSS presents fresh opportunities for the country. As a government, we are very serious on improving service delivery to our people and this requires that we look into more affordable means of serving our people. Presently, government has been spending over US$ 40 million annually on commercial software from the likes of Oracle Systems and Microsoft Corporation. Adopting the use of FOSS, will result into enormous savings that can be re-injected into other under-funded areas.
