Minister of ICT and National Guidance Frank Tumwebaze has reiterated his ministry’s resolve to render all the necessary support to Ugandans involved in ICT innovations.
The Minister told innovators who converged for Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) ACIA awards ceremony that his ministry has set up a program to support individuals who are committed to innovation.
The Innovation support program which the minister said was birthed when he had just assumed office “has already gotten support from both Cabinet and Parliament.”
UCC was on Friday May 26th awarding innovators from different regions of the country who had been exhibiting their innovations at Kampala Serena hotel from May 25th.
Acia awards was started by UCC in 2010 to encourage individuals, academia, government agencies and other entities to harness ICTs in creating solutions to Uganda’s development challenges.
The award, which has 9 categories, rewarded the two best teams from each category with implementation grants to further their projects.
The minister who said technology is the engine of development in the recent world expressed how he was “pleased to find that UCC had in place this program of ACIA which helps to mobilize talents for innovation.”
On that note, he told the participants that the ministry of ICT “will not only be stopping at Recognition programs like ACIA but will now be giving real support following criteria that the experts will set.”
Besides the specific and direct interventions like ACIA and IISP that my sector is putting in place to promote innovations, Tumwebaze said, we also embarked on the conception of a Uganda digital vision.
He also stated that the government views this is an ambitious framework that will digitally empower citizens and transform the country.
“This digital vision will seek to integrate all ICT policies and strategies in place so as to avoid working in silos.An integrated digital vision for the country will set milestones for each sector of government to adopt and implement,” he said.
Tumwebaze also urged academicians who were present “to inculcate in our young ones the culture of creativity and analytical thinking from a tender age if we are to leapfrog and catch up with the rest of the world.”