NITA-U ED, Dr. Hatwib Mugasa addressing press at Uganda Media Centre about the commissioning of RCIP

The Government of Uganda in 2016 secured financing from the World Bank to implement the Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP). The goal of the RCIP is to transform public service delivery in Uganda - using ICT, in order to improve the lives of Ugandans.

The project closure roadmap will run for two months with different activities set to happen in all regions of the country which will calumniate into a grand closure and e-services exhibition in Gulu on 31st August 2022. Regional Activities are meant to create more awareness of available e-government services as well as project’s achievements;

Under RCIP, NITA-U has registered significant progress over the 5-year period with a 100% project completion of all set project activities.
The highlights of the major achievements include the following:

1. Extension of the geographic reach of broadband connectivity across the country. With 764 Kms of Optical Fibre Cable added on-to the Government National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI). Additional 842 Km of Optical Fiber was extended under missing links which covered West Nile. A total of 725 additional MDAs/DLG sites and target user groups connected to the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI). Installation of additional 300 Wi-Fi sites across major cities and towns across the country. Greening of 25 NBI Transmission sites completed with all sites connected to Solar Energy.

2. Lowering of prices for international capacity, reduction of the cost of internet Bandwidth for Government has reduced from 300 USD per Mbps per month in 2016 to 70 USD per Mbps per month which has translated into a competitive advantage, with internet pricing being 56% cheaper when benchmarked against the regional pricing and therefore more affordable for Uganda.

3. Government SMS/USSD Gateway has also been developed as a Shared Platform for dispatch BULK SMS by Different Government Ministries Departments and Agencies. This e-service had been provisioned to 32 MDAs utilizing a total of 22 services

4. The Digital Authentication and Electronics Signatures solution (Ug-Pass) developed and engagements with MDAs and Private Sector (Banks) to integrate their respective e-services onto the Platform are already on-going.

5. The Digital Authentication and Electronics Signatures solution (Ug-Pass) developed and engagements with MDAs and Private Sector (Banks) to integrate their respective e-services onto the Platform are already on-going.

6. Whole of Government System Integration Platform Developed. A total of 80 entities have been integrated onto the Government Systems Integration Platform (UG-HUB). These
include Ministries Departments and Agencies and Banks; these can now seamlessly share data across this Platform which has increased efficiencies and timeliness in public service delivery across Government enabling ease of access of information and digital payments.

7. Centralized Hosting for Government. as part of the rationalization of ICT services across