By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The minister for Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Frank Kagigyi Tumwebaze has revealed that going forward, every Ugandan should be able to afford internet if the country is to achieve Vision 2040.
Tumwebaze made the remarks on Wednesday afternoon during the Africa Internet Summit held at Sheraton hotel, Kampala. In his welcoming remarks, the minister said the struggle the Gov’t has now is how to make internet cheap and affordable to all Ugandans. “How do we make it (internet) cheaper, secure, accessible and affordable to all Ugandans?, that’s what Gov’t dealing with now….and we’re very open for discussion,” Tumwebaze said.
Kampala is hosting hundreds of key players in the African and Global Internet industry sector at the Africa Internet Summit 2019. The event dubbed AIS’19 is taking place from 9th-21st June 2019 at Sheraton Kampala.
AIS’19 is aimed at being a platform for technocrats and business to discuss policies, trends, resources and challenges in growing Internet for sustainable development in Africa and the Indian Ocean Region. It is hosted by African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) and The African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) in collaboration with NFT Consult from Uganda, who is the Local Host. The event which is held annually consists of keynote speeches, policy discussions, seminars, workshops, tutorials and other forums for sharing ICT knowledge within the African region. The 2018 edition was held in Senegal and was attended by 542 delegates from 61 Countries. Whereas Internet penetration in Africa has grown from 11% to 28.6% in just 5 years despite challenges such as cyber security, it is lower when compared to the rest of the world. Measurable parameters such IP address allocations show that the continent is quite behind. You can read the event concept note here.
