Q&A: Dr. Aminah Zawedde, the gov’t of Uganda’s Chief Technology Officer on digitisation, e-governance and creating 300,000 youth jobs  Dr. Amina Zawedde is Uganda’s Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance (MoICT & NG) and the first female to hold that job. The Ministry has a mandate of providing strategic and technical leadership, overall coordination, support and advocacy on all matters of policy, laws, regulations and strategy for the ICT sector. She was appointed to the job in July 2021. In this interview, she tells CEO East Africa’s Muhereza Kyamutetera some of her key milestones on the job, as well as the progress thus far, of Uganda’s digital vision.

First of all, tell us about yourself. Who is Dr. Amina Zawedde? How do you describe yourself?

I hold a PhD in Computer Science (from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands), and an MSc. Computer Science (Makerere University), a PGDip in Educational Technologies (University of Cape Town, South Africa), PGD in Education (IUIU) and a BSc. (Statistics and Economics) (Makerere University, Uganda).

I am passionate about embracing digital transformation to improve business models, and service delivery and transform people’s lives. In all I do, I aim to provide strategic and technical leadership on how various sectors can leverage innovation and digital solutions to solve their problems while creating employment opportunities for the youth. 

I am a Rotarian and serve on the boards of Uganda National Bureau of Standards, Uganda Telecommunications Corporation Limited, DFCU Limited and Mustard Seed Junior School.

A computer scientist- one of the earliest and a woman at that⏤ a combination of many rares. What’s your story? How did you come to join this field, and what inspired you?

I have always been driven by a passion to leave the world better than I found it. So as an infant, when I was exposed to STEM I was immediately enthralled by its ability of it to have an immediate impact for good. For example, looking at doctors and their power to heal through medicine, mechanics and their ability to make a car move or ‘kamyufuus’ and their magical touch to make electricity appear, etc; all these inspired me. 

So with the ambition to change my society, I took on sciences and here we are today. 

It will be two years this July since you were appointed PS of MoICT & NG⏤ what would you say are some of the key achievements?

I will preface my response with a deep appreciation to H.E. The President of Uganda, Gen Yoweri Museveni – his trust in my abilities, willingness to listen to my views and the consistent guidance he offers has been my anchor for the past 24 months. Thank you, Mr President. 

It is also not lost on me that I am the first female Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, a testimony of H.E President Museveni’s intentionality to drive inclusion and gender equality. 

Now, to answer your question – it has been and continues to be an honour to serve as the Captain of the ICT sector. 

I am very proud of what we (my team at the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance and those across the ICT sector agencies) have achieved together and wanted to take this opportunity to thank them. I also thank my colleague Permanent Secretaries, with whom we have taken on challenges and shared successes.

Lastly, by no means least – I also thank my Ministers; they have been nothing short of sterling in how they lead us at the Ministry. 

24 months isn’t the entire full circle of my term as PS ICT. Therefore, I wouldn’t want to call them achievements. I prefer milestones instead because we still have a lot to do. Some of the milestones include: 

1. Fighting youth unemployment – This is a fight we have made ours. We have established a Business Process Outsourcing & Innovation Council (BPO + Innovation). This council works with us at the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance to formulate strategies for creating jobs for the youth through ICT outsourcing and Innovation and prescribing regulatory frameworks/reforms and projects relevant to the growth of the BPO and Innovation industry. The council also identifies, supports and scales up breakthrough technologies and disruptive innovations.
2. Bringing Government closer to the citizens. Over the past 24 months, I have ensured that the Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) is implemented to its conclusion, within the agreed-upon terms with the funder, the World Bank. This project has increased access to the internet across the country, reduced the cost of the internet and made efforts to secure our cyberspace. This is a good foundation for the Uganda Digital Acceleration Project which the Ministry of ICT will soon roll out. 
3. Fighting exclusion – the number of devices connected to the internet in Uganda now stands at 32 million, internet users at 23.7 million and digital wallets at 40.7 million, thanks to the efforts of our agency, Uganda Communications Commission. Coupled with the over 5,000km of Government Fibre on the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI), we are ensuring that distance shouldn’t be a barrier to access to public services. 
4. Fighting poverty – The ICT Ministry was charged with the responsibility of spearheading Pillar 5 (Community Data) of the Parish Development Model (PDM) which involves setting up the Parish Development Management Information System (PDMIS) to among others validate information on the beneficiaries, evaluate the livelihood and standards of living of people and tracking the progress and performance of the different pillars to report the real-time implementation of the programme. We are confident that this granular data will be a key enabler for the success of the Parish Development Model – Government can plan, and evaluate the success of efforts and have targeted interventions where necessary. The system is ready and will be scaled across the nation. 

As a matter of record, this landmark system was locally developed and is being used to collect all parish data across Uganda and is being used by all partnering institutions to track all Parish Development Model implementation initiatives.

5. Fighting corruption – Aware that Corruption can derail the digitisation effort, we have deployed various technology types to reduce corruption by promoting transparency, opening government data to public scrutiny, and by automating government processes, restricting the discretion of officials and limiting citizens’ interaction with gatekeepers to access key services. The following key Government processes have been automated: 

• Electronic Government Procurement (eGP): This system has automated the entire Government procurement life cycle to eliminate the use of paper and limit face-to-face interaction.
• Online Business Registration System (OBRS): A digital service system that gives users the ability to access services such as registration of companies, business names, legal documents and insolvency, among others, online.
• Electronic Document Management System:  This system automates records and eases workflows across Government institutions. The system eliminates the use of paper across all Government processes 

Cognisant that the job to digitise the nation is not borne by the Government alone, I have nurtured partnerships with the private sector. This is in line with the government’s commitment to create a digitally driven economy and realise universal goals of inclusion, sustainable development, economic progress and poverty eradication through digital innovation.

These partnerships include: 

• United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) – the creation of the inclusive digital economy scorecard (IDES), which is a policy tool that helps governments to set their digital transformation priorities. This tool identifies the key market constraints hindering the development of an inclusive digital economy and helps to set the right priorities with public and private stakeholders to foster a digital economy that leaves no one behind.
• United Nations Development Fund – jointly creating a long-term digital transformation roadmap. This roadmap will present an overarching vision for a well-connected Uganda that delivers on the opportunities presented by various technologies, and limits the risks whilst stipulating how Uganda’s digital vision can effectively be achieved. 
• Airtel Uganda and Huawei Technologies Uganda – Establishment of a Huawei ICT Academy at the Uganda Institute of Communications & Technology (UICT). This academy will provide adequate skills, training and certification courses such as 5G, A.I, Cloud, Security, Data communications and others that are required by employers to UICT students and ICT officers
• MTN Uganda and Centenary Technology Services – Launched a nationwide Digital Skilling Program. The youth-centred economic empowerment program impacts the relevant skills and creates opportunities for the youth. The program is designed for fresh graduates, those in and out of school, innovators, entrepreneurs well as tech-driven start-ups
• Huawei Technologies – The Minister of ICT & National Guidance hosted the first-ever National ICT Job fair in collaboration with Huawei which yielded internship opportunities for 1,100 youths. 
• The Innovation Village – The Ministry of ICT & National Guidance will identify and develop projects that support innovation-oriented activities that are focused on leveraging emerging digital technologies and spur the development of the innovation ecosystem in Uganda. 
• Sunbird AI – using Artificial Intelligence (AI) towards leveraging Artificial Intelligence Systems to increase the use of ICT services for Uganda’s social and Economic development in accordance with NDPIII
• ICDL Africa – Promoting the re-skilling and upskilling of the government workforce to acquire appropriate digital skills to support eGovernment service delivery
• Digitruck: In partnership with Huawei Technologies Limited & Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development – A skilling initiative, targeting women. 3,000 women to be trained annually.
• Refactory – The initiative is aimed at providing industry-based training to address the current skills gap in the ICT ecosystem.

In addition to the above partnerships, I have sought out and engaged the world’s most digitized nations to nourish ICT-centric innovation and generate new job opportunities for Uganda’s young people. This engagement has led to the commitment of support from these nations through Memorandums of Understanding (MoU), these nations include Japan, Estonia, Romania, Vietnam and South Africa.

Lets talk about Unemployment. You have mentioned unemployment as being a challenge within the sector and across the nation. What are you doing, if anything at all, to combat this?

Solving youth unemployment is at the heart of our efforts in the sector, and the reason why I have prioritised Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as a solution to unemployment. As a start to the fight against unemployment, I worked with my Ministers to appoint a Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and Innovation Council. The first of its kind in Uganda, the council is now operational and works with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to formulate strategies for creating jobs for the youth through ICT outsourcing and Innovation and prescribe regulatory frameworks/reforms and projects relevant to the growth of the BPO and Innovation industry. 

We have a BPO law in the offing. The council and the Ministry are working together on this. 

We know that the promotion of our young people is how we get them business and in turn, they employ more young people and eventually pay taxes. To this end, we carried out a campaign known as Discover Africa’s Innovation Powerhouse in 2022. During the campaign, the Government celebrated Ugandan excellence and industry by profiling Ugandan talent and inviting the world to discover the opportunities that abound in the Pearl of Africa. The campaign highlighted how innovations by Ugandans have created solutions to various societal challenges. The campaign saw the participation of Ugandan innovators at the Dubai Expo and the branding & marketing of Uganda as a destination for BPO & Innovation investment, engaging in a global conversation with other innovators from around the world, and job creation through great partnerships.

These companies, that participated in the Dubai expo, are no longer how they used to be. They have grown, as example, Emvigo – a BPO call centre company got business in UAE and is serving customers there. Xente – a fintech, was enrolled in a global program at Mastercard, which attracted USD. 1M in funding and it recently launched a VISA prepaid card, etc. 

In January 2023, the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance onboarded a global partner, Helpware, the largest and fast-growing BPO company in the United States, to launch a ‘people as a service’ facility in Uganda. Within the calendar year 2023, over 1,000 youth will be employed in this facility to support the operations of global brands like TikTok and Netflix. 

So, unemployment is a challenge we have taken. We hope to have created 300,000 jobs in 5years. We have already started the journey. 

One of the key challenges in Uganda is the cost of communication- what is the ministry doing to bring this down?

The biggest issue that continues to drive the cost of communication up is the taxes levied on smartphones. These taxes keep the cost of entry high and are therefore a barrier for many people. 

We believe that taxation should not be designed based on short-term considerations – it should be designed based on achieving the best long-term economic interests for society and in a way that accelerates the extension of services to the poor. The indirect benefits to the economy of having affordable access to telecommunications services far outweigh any short-term benefit to the budget. 

This is an issue that we have been engaging our colleagues at the Ministry of Finance Planning & Economic Development on and will continue to engage them until we reach a consensus. 

Your ministry is leading the rebirth of Uganda Telecom- is there a business case for reviving Uganda Telecom? What lessons have you picked from its past failures and is the government this time committed to avoiding the mistakes of the past?

Yes, there is a business case for the revival of the national telecommunications company. The justification is: 

1. Ensuring Universal Access: It’s no longer a debate, telecommunications services are essential for the functioning of a modern economy and society. However, in many cases, private companies may not find it profitable to provide services in remote or economically disadvantaged areas. A government-owned company can ensure that all citizens have access to these services, regardless of their location or economic status.
2. Competition: In some cases, private telecommunications companies may have a monopoly over the market, leading to higher prices and lower quality of services. A government-owned company can provide competition and force private companies to improve their services and prices.
3. National Security: Telecommunications services are critical infrastructure and can be vulnerable to cyber attacks or other security threats. A government-owned company can provide additional security measures and ensure that the country’s critical infrastructure is protected.
4. Revenue Generation: A government-owned telecommunications company can generate revenue for the government, which can be used for public services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure development.

Overall, our new UTCL will provide significant benefits in terms of ensuring universal access, promoting competition, enhancing national security, and generating revenue.