Regional Communications Infrastructure Program Phase 5 - Uganda

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The project development objectives of the Regional Communications Infrastructure Program Phase 5 Project for Uganda are to support Uganda’s efforts to: (i) lower prices for international capacity and extend the geographic reach of broadband networks (the connectivity development objective); and (ii) improve the Government’s efficiency and transparency through e-government applications (the transparency development objective). The project is comprised of four components. Component 1, enabling environment component, aims to support the capacity of Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) and the National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (NITA-U) to review, develop and implement relevant ICT policies, strategies, laws and technical regulatory frameworks to support a modern and vibrant ICT sector. The objectives include maximizing the coverage, quality, affordability, and security of ICT infrastructure and enabling the delivery of e-services by both government and the private sector. Component 2, connectivity component, will finance the implementation of selected activities to further develop the national public ICT infrastructure including: (i) pre-purchase of international bandwidth for government and priority target user groups; (ii) construction of select missing links in national backbone infrastructure (NBI) in order to improve regional connectivity and the reach, availability and resiliency of NBI and provision of green energy solutions for new and existing NBI transmission sites to improve power reliability, and reduce costs and pollution; and (iii) extension of the Government Network (GovNet), providing broadband connectivity to ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), local governments, schools, hospitals, universities, research institutions, and NGOs. Component 3, e-government component, will finance carrying out a program of activities to set up foundational and enabling shared platform for e-government, including: (i) development and establishment of appropriate ICT technical standards and frameworks, data models and procedural schemes to enable seamless interoperability across government ICT systems. Component 4, project management component, will finance project management and coordination including procurement, financial management, monitoring & evaluation and environmental and social safeguards management.