Why NITA-U Matters

In the past month, the Ugandan ICT fraternity has been filled with discussions regarding the newly formed National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U). A number of issues have been raised regarding the constitution of the Board, the planned abrogation of the Act when appointing the Executive Director, the conflict of interest among some of the directors appointed onto the board e.t.c.

Someone asked me, so what about NITA-U, what is special about it? I don't understand this whole hussle. Lets look at it this way;

What is the mandate of NITA-U? To coordinate, promote and monitor IT development within the context of national, social and economic development. This implies that the body shall in effect be in charge of steering the entire nation when it comes to IT. As you may already have seen, IT is becoming a key player in all our activities today. Banks are able to avail you money from any branch because of IT, ATMs do what they do because of IT, you can pay the National Water bill from any town and it is instantly updated because of IT, you can study distance learning cheaply because of IT, money transfers are possible because of IT, all these and more are issues that touch us as laymen on a daily basis. This actually implies that this body will play a visionary role and needs to be well constituted and not turned into a political/financial playing ground. More about its responsibilities lies here

Everyday we re complaining about the slow, expensive and unavailable internet services. We want to access at faster speeds so we can benefit from services like Youtube and Facebook that have video integrated in them among others. Those who are studying want to access video lectures online, businessmen want to exchange information some of which requires very decent connectivity to be transmitted to their suppliers or customers. While we may continually put the blame on the ISPs, the truth is that the Government has a role to play and this is where NITA-U as the implementing arm for IT will come in handy. It will help us realise our dreams of having 1Mbps broadband in our homes for starters as we chase the South Koreans who are already using 10Mbps in homes. These speeds can allow us to achieve a lot and save on time wasted doing non core work like reading emails.

We can only be able to achieve the impressive IT usage if there is good planning spearheaded by the NITA-U in conjunction with the private sector. That is why you and me have to be concerned about the constitution of the NITA-U governance because it is the precursor to all that we want to achieve in future as ICT lovers.