Malawians study Uganda ICT projects

The delegation also includes officials studying energy projects among others.

"We are here to learn how the Uganda government is implementing universal access through various information communication technology projects," said the Malawian government manager for the Wide Area Network Patrick Machika who is also the leader of the ICT group.

He said that Malawi is about to start implementing the same programme of achieving universal access. "As at the end of the year 2007, Malawi's teledensity was 8.12% and we want to implement programmes that would see the sector grow," he said.

"We understand that Uganda has implemented this project through a number of policy reviews, so we are here to share experience, know the problems involved and how to solve them," he told HANA in Kampala.

The ICT Minister of Uganda, Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira said that when Uganda liberalized the sector in the year 2006, there were 2.2m subscribers, a number that has now reached 4.7m.

"But the figure is expected to grow to 8.5m within the next twelve months when the two new companies that include Warid Telecoms and Hits Telecoms start operating. Our government is also implementing various projects that are aimed at enabling all Ugandans to have universal access to services," he said.

He said the projects include the national infrastructure data backbone and the electronic government project.

"The first phase of the infrastructure covered Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja but when the whole country is covered this would lower the internet costs," he said.

"In order to bring ICT services to schools we are planning to give out computers to 80 schools and connect health centres," he concluded.

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