Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance has evening lauded Huawei for the 2017 Seeds for the Future program. Speaking at the launch ceremony of the program at Makerere University College of Computing and Informational Science, he noted that the program is in line with the ‘Digitization Uganda Strategy’ that is to be completed and launched soon.
“I thank Huawei for the great contribution to the ICT sector. Seeds for the Future program helps cultivate and pool together ICT professionals and students that are crucial to industry development, thus boosting ICT industry growth, driving the development of different sectors and contributing to lower unemployment rates over the long term. To the beneficiary students, please don’t take such opportunities lightly but rather maximize them to become better by gathering useful experiences’’, he said.
Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, Minister of ICT and National Guidance (M), Mr. Chu Maoming CDM Chinese Embassy to Uganda (L), Mr. Stanley Chyn(R) Huawei Managing Director and other guests launch the Huawei Seeds for the Future
The program that was flagged off by H.E. Yoweri Museveni began in Uganda in 2016 with 10 ICT talents visiting China in Beijing and Shenzhen. These were trained in the Chinese culture such as language, calligraphy, painting learning, historical tour in Beijing and cutting-edge ICTs lessons, enterprise management experience sharing, lab practices, Huawei exhibition hall visit and solutions demonstration in Shenzhen, where Huawei’s headquarter is located.
“Our focus this year is to have the top 10 students out of the 35 students recommended by government universities of Uganda through competition. The judges will look through their proposals on “How to accelerate the development of Uganda through ICT” and select the best 10 for the program who shall travel to China on 2nd June for two weeks”, says Stanley Chyn Huawei’s Managing Director at the program launch ceremony.
The Assistant Commissioner Information and Communication of the Ministry of Education and Sports Mr. Patrick Muyinda commended Huawei for the program and noted that the Minister of Education approved to partner with Huawei for the activities under the Seeds for the Future 2017.
“The Ministry of Education and Sports is a partner of the Seeds for the future program 2017. This program was introduced to the Minister Hon. Janet Museveni earlier this year, which she welcomed and approved all the said activities and timelines to take place. On this note I thank Huawei for allowing us to be a part and parcel of an initiative that can only add to Uganda’s education sector through knowledge transfer, enhancement of teaching and scientific research capabilities and provision of high quality courses and opportunities for hands-on practice”, he said.
The Deputy Chief of Mission Chinese Embassy to Uganda Mr. Chu Maoming noted that Chinese companies like Huawei are committed to the well being of all Ugandans and affirmed that it is a policy for all Chinese enterprises to give back to the locals.
The Seeds for the Future program was initiated in 2008 by Huawei with over 2700 talents from all over the world for study trips in China.
“I have today afternoon Monday 24/4/2017 launched the #seeds4thefutureprogramme by #HuawaiTechnologies at #Makerere University. The programme is an annual event that Huawei implements in partnerships with the Ministries of ICT and Education. The best 10 qualifying ICT students selected out of a competition are taken to China for mentorship opportunities. In ICT innovations, mentoring innovators is a very important component of their research and development. I am glad our young ICT innovators are getting exposed. More of these opportunities will become apparent and available from other IT multinationals after we launch our Innovation support program in July. We so far have a good number of partners eagerly wanting to come on board and support young talents with potential to innovate and take products to the market,” Frank posted on his wall after the launch.
On Friday the Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank K Tumwebaze launched MTN Network Operations (NOC). The Minister challenged telecom companies to set up customer service centers in all regions and districts of Uganda that handle customer feedback and respond to consumer queries in a honest and transparent manner.
“Today Friday 10th March 2017, I launched the MTN Network Operations (NOC) Centre operated and run by ZTE a Chinese IT company. I was pleased to launch the Centre that employs young Ugandan engineers. These young engineers monitor and maintain the MTN network efficiency 24/7. While I congratulated the telecoms for building such network centers to create jobs and improve consumer services, I also challenged them to set up customer service centers in all regions and districts of Uganda that handle customer feedback and respond to consumer queries in a honest and transparent manner. I implored them to invest in promoting IT/digital literacy among their customers such that they all can understand the dynamics of the costs associated with the services they consume and pay for. For example how does a customer monitor and measure his/her Data usage? Even before the Communications tribunal is made operational next financial year, telecoms must act transparently in an effort to guarantee consumer protection and trust,” Frank Tumwebaze said.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday launched Library in Oguni State Nigeria. President Yoweri was represented by the Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank Tumwebaze who was said honoured to represent the president at such function. President Yoweri Museveni sent two books to Obasanjo as gifts to contribute to the Library.
Hon. Frank Tumwebaze with HE Obasanjo on Saturday
“I was honored today Saturday 4th March 2017, to represent President Yoweri Museveni at the official Launch of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Oguni State Nigeria and also at the Celebration of the 80th Birthday of President Obasanjo. On behalf of President Museveni I presented two books to H E Obasanjo as gifts to contribute to the library, ”Frank said.
Frank Tumwebaze hands two books as gifts from M7 to contribute to Presidential Library
The function was attended by many heads of state Past and present. Her Excellency Ellen Sirleaf of Liberia was the chief guest. She congratulated President Obasanjo and members of his Obasanjo foundation for having chosen to leave a legacy of nothing else but a place where knowledge and history are captured and kept.
The Olusegun Obasanjo library is the first in Africa next to a few ones in the USA. The designers of the same are the ones working on the Barack Obama Presidential Library in USA.
Presidents of West African countries both past and present like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Malawi former a president Joyce Banda, former President. Koufo of Ghana, Former President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan among many others attended.
Raila Odinga former Kenyan PM also attended and he was the only one representing Kenya.
The Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank Tumwebaze has responded to the article published in today’s Daily Monitor (21st February 2017) which he said he was misquoted. The article was about proposed dialogue between President Yoweri Museveni and his bitter rival Kiiza Besigye of the FDC.
“My Brief Response to Monitor earlier today;
As I said before, Government is not aware of any planned or proposed “talks” or “dialogue” between President Museveni and former Presidential Candidate Dr Kiiza Besigye. Cabinet has not discussed anything to that effect. It’s wrong to give an impression that the so called “talks” are being pursued covertly and secretly. There is nothing like that. If there are people who want President Museveni and Kiiza Besigye to meet and talk, let them say so and make known the issues they want to present to the President,” Frank Tumwebaze.
ICT and National Guidance Minister, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze has said that positive minds dream big and win. While reacting on Patrick Bitature’s business issues at the moment on social media, the minister it is so unfair to celebrate negativity and wish bad luck to others.
Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister for ICT and National Guidance
“Those who wish bad luck to others and celebrate negativity are bad losers. Positive minds dream big and win,” Frank said. “Those who celebrate negativity are bad losers and do not succeed in life,” he added.
The Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank Tumwebaze on Friday officially launched Vodafone’s JUMP an e-learning that will enable Youth acquire skills.
Are you part of the innovation generation, let JUMP be your guide.
JUMP is a unique platform for Uganda youths with inspiring and engaging content on Education, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Self-improvement, Lifestyle and Entertainment.
“I was pleased this morning to join Vodafone Uganda as guest of honor to launch their online youth platform Called JUMP an e-learning enabler for the youth. This is great and it ties in well with our ministry’s ICT innovation plans,” Frank said.
Meanwhile on Thursday 9th Feb 2017, Frank Tumwebaze received the Minister of ICT of Malawi, his Permanent Secretary and their delegation who were in Kampala on a bench marking tour with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.
“As the Ministry of ICT, we were pleased to host and facilitate them on their request to benchmark our ICT Policies & systems. Choosing our works as models to benchmark is good and a vote of confidence in our ICT Policy regime. Of most particular interest to them is our move to set up an innovation fund to support innovation startups, that gets operational by July this year at the beginning of the new financial year 2017/2018,” Frank said.
The Minster for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank K Tumwebaze has continued his quest to put information and technology at a higher level in Uganda. During his recent visit to China, the minister rooted for a working partnership between CCTV and UBC.
Frank Tumwebaze (L) in China last week
After a visit to CCTV, the Minister agreed in principle with CCTV management that the two state national broadcasters should corporate and learn from each other. For UBC, Frank said it’s a major step in an effort to rebuild and revamp it.
CCTV will accord UBC staff an opportunity to learn new modern skills in broadcasting, content production and management and use of new modern digital equipment.
An official Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) will follow through our countries’ formal diplomatic channels.
The minister also lobbied for more working partnership between the two states in other ICT sectors.
Below is the Minister’s full statement;
“I have concluded my one week working visit to China. Together with my delegation, we attended the world Internet conference in Wuhzen province and good discussions on ensuring safety and sustainability of the cyberspace were held. The future of the Internet, its equitable access and the end of its monopoly by the big powers dominated the discussions.
Famous personalities like ALI BABA spoke at the conference that was attended by world ICT leaders and Presidents of ICT multinational firms. After the conference, my delegation and I visited the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. I thank our Embassy in Beijing -China for organising this meeting. I discussed with the management of CCTV (China’s national broadcaster) possible areas of mutual cooperation and partnership with UBC. We agreed in principle that our two state national broadcasters should corporate and learn from each other.
For UBC, this is a major step in our efforts to rebuild and revamp it. CCTV will accord UBC staff an opportunity to learn new modern skills in broadcasting, content production and management and use of new modern digital equipment. An official MOU will follow through our countries’ formal diplomatic channels,” Frank Tumwebaze said.
The Minister of ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank K Tumwebaze has urged the general public to politics of divisionism which he said they deny issues objective interrogation on open discussion. The Minister was responding to feedback about his view on Makerere University latest standoff with lecturers.
Frank Tumwebaze has advised against politics of division
“Thank you all friends for your feedback comments on my Post on Makerere. I appreciate them. Let’s always not get lost in politics of polarisation and we deny issues the objective interrogation they deserve in these citizen platforms of open discussion. This is how and where all of us get a chance to shape policy. I am happy many of you were candid and trying to look for solutions.
Managing a university in my view has two layers. There is the layer of academics and the associated quality control rigorous procedures. It entails a whole range of academic programs like Investment in research and human resource so as not to compromise the integrity of the institution and its products. Here you certainly need academicians with requisite qualifications to manage this layer. The other layer is the institution’s administration and operations. This on the other hand entails Looking at welfare of staff and students, planning for the recurrent bills and development (infrastructure) just like any finance and admin of any institution is run. There is no rocket science here, it’s all about adhering to the known principles of corporate governance. It’s therefore my strong considered opinion that Makerere and other public universities should have that two layered system of governance. Administrators do administration and academicians quality assure and maintain standards. Mixing the two, seems to threaten the academic integrity. The driving force becomes money and the need to save more money as opposed to remaining top as academic giants. I don’t know but these are my views,” Frank Tumwebaze.
The Minister of ICT and National Guidance Hon. Frank KagyigyiTumwebaze has today joined other political leaders and stake holders to inspect road projects in Kamwenge district.
The inspection was meant to find out if the road works are on point.
A day out today in the field in Kamwenge dist with fellow MPS & District LC5 to inspect our roads. Our inspection outreach today took us all the way down to Lake George (Mahyoro), Very nice scenery. We also interacted with the citizens earlier today in Kibale County as our inspection outreach continues,” Fran Tumwebaze said.
I called you this morning to appraise you, your various audiences and the country at large on the participation and performance of our country at the various international events in the ICT arena; that is the recently concluded 26th International Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the 37th Assembly of Parties of the International Satellite Organization (ITSO) in Istanbul and Washington DC respectively. I led Uganda’s delegations that represented Uganda at both of these high level meetings.
Uganda is a member to a several of international organizations namely; the Universal Postal Union (UPU), International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), International Telecommunications Union (ITU),Pan Africa Postal Union (PAPU), Africa Telecommunicati ons Union (ATU) and East Africa Communications Organization (EACO), Africa Advanced level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) among others.
Frank Tumwebaze addressing the Press
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO)
The Government of Uganda is a signatory to the ITSO Agreement that was initially opened for signature by governments at Washington, D.C. on August 20, 1971 and entered into force on February 12, 1973. The signing of this agreement resulted from consideration by the State Parties of the principles set forth in Resolution 1721 (XVI) of the General Assembly of the United Nations that communication by means of satellite should be available to the nations of the world as soon as practicable on a global and non-discriminatory basis.
Leadership of ITSO
The Assembly of Parties of ITSO, is composed of 149 member countries. It is the highest decision making organ of the organization. The executive organ, is headed by the Director General, who is directly responsible to the Assembly of Parties. The Director General is elected and appointed by the Assembly of Parties for a term of four years and is eligible for reelection for another four year period. In Pursuit of the above, this year’s 37th Assembly of Parties was held in Washington USA and was to conduct elections for the Director General among other items on the agenda.
In May 2016, Uganda government duly nominated Mr. Patrick Masambu, a qualified telecommunications professional with immense expertise in regulatory frameworks as Uganda’s candidate for the position of Director General.
Electoral process
Firstly, Russia was elected by acclamation/unopposed as the chair of the Assembly of Parties and the other only electable position was of Director General.
As such Mr. Patrick Masambu vied for the position of Director General, of International Telecommunicati ons Satellite Organization (ITSO) and competed against two other equally competent professionals from France and Spain. The electoral rules of the ITSO assembly require that for any candidate to be duly elected he/she Must get 2/3rds of the total votes cast in the first round of voting. This is always difficult and makes the second round of voting inevitable. At the second round, only the first and second candidate are allowed to be voted on. The rest get eliminated. For this particular election of ITSO that took place on 13th October 2016 at the American University, College of law in Washington DC, Uganda’s candidate(Masambu) scored 59 votes, France’s scored 33 and Spain’s candidate scored 23 at the first round of voting. Despite this clear lead by our candidate, a re-run became inevitable because of the 2/3rds requirement. Mr. Masambu now faced the French candidate as per the assembly electoral rules. Finally on tallying, our candidate won with a landslide victory. Masambu polled 72 votes against 43 votes of Mr. Yvon Henri of France and was thus declared the next Director General of ITSO effective July 2017 when the term of the current leadership expires.
Universal Postal Union (UPU)
In the same vein, Uganda won elections to retain her seat on the 40 Member Council of Administration of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The voting took place on Wednesday 5th October 2016 at the 26th sitting of the UPU Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. Out of 192member countries, only 151 countries had voting rights at the Congress and Uganda was voted 5th from the African region that had 16 contenders. Only eleven had to be picked. The 26th UPU congress also discussed the role of the Post in the changing global digital environment. It was agreed that Post operators allover enjoy huge networks of physical infrastructure and if integrated with e-commerce, Posts can become a far much better, efficient and cheaper actor in the provision of e-commerce services compared to banks and telecoms. Member Countries therefore were tasked to review their domestic policies to make sure the work of Posta copes up with the digitally changing environment and position it to respond ably to the needs of its clients majority of which are the rural under-served.
What do these election victories mean for Uganda? And what are the benefits of being on and leading these bodies?
Political leadership: Elections to these international bodies take into consideration a number of factors such as diplomatic ties, a country’s foreign policy, its leadership and how strategically important it is in the region, continental and international system among others. These elections also are by and large a measure of how the international system perceives a country. Normally, the lobbying is intense and involving. I however had at these meetings competent teams of campaigners that smartly helped me to execute a subtle and well-conceived campaign strategy. One major factor that helped our campaign both in Istanbul and Washington was first and foremost, the influence of our President on the continent which helped to unite Africa and also on the international scene. It gave us enormous good will. While the proverbial African saying of a prophet has no respect at home; meaning that quite often people don’t appreciate as much as it would be the golden value of their own and take it as ordinary, may be true even here in Uganda, those outside see it and appreciate it most. The influence of our President was the most enabling good will to ride on among other factors. Our President’s correct foreign policy of the Pan Africanist formation, his clarity and articulation of Africa’s bottlenecks, his consistent advocacy for trade not aid as well his role in stabilizing troubled Somalia that many saw as a failed State and had surrendered in the hands of terror networks, all continue to stand out prominently at the international scene and thus helped a great deal to brand Uganda correctly, the works and efforts of spoilers from within and without Uganda notwithstanding. Every minister or Head of delegation we spoke to while soliciting support for our country and candidate pledged support for Uganda. Each of those that pledged support had a thing or two to speak about in praise of the leadership of our President. By and large, Uganda enjoys good relations with most counties of the world and hence some were giving reciprocal support.
Of particular importance also was the technical competence of our Candidate Mr. Masambu Patrick. A telecommunications engineer, by profession, Masambu has more than 30 years of experience at senior and international levels that have included positions in both the public and private sector. He has actively led and participated in the design, development and implementation of various works and initiatives at regional and international level in institutions such as ITU, ATU, World Bank and other institutions.
Proof of Correct ICT Policy frameworks: These international bodies were formed majorly as global sector specific professional institutions for setting standards of the various actors to follow and thus fit in the international system. It is usually countries that have demonstrable good track record of ICT Policy frame work at home that get elected to the high organs of such bodies. Uganda being elected therefore, is validation of our success story in the ICT sector built on a sound Policy, legal, regulatory and framework. It means our policies are correct.
The benefits for Uganda’s active participation at these bodies are enormous:
a) First, they Provide us an opportunity to bench mark and quality assure our ICT policy instruments and be able to review them periodically to match the changing demands of Technological advancements. When our own individual and/or our country as an entity gets elected to positions of leadership of these international bodies to be able to participate at the highest decision making level of these organization, the advantages of knowledge transfer, resource mobilization etc. become more evident.
b) We also get the opportunity to share our experience and also learn from the others. One of the big policy agenda for example Uganda left at the table of ITSO which Mr.Masambu will champion was the question of making satellite universal and affordable especially by the geographically least empowered regions like Africa and Small Island States. Satellite communication is the future and master of all communications. Yes alternatives like optic fiber cables are there and indeed offer cheaper solutions compared to satellite but they are limited in many respects. They are not disaster proof just as satellite is.
c) The other benefit derived from our country’s participation in these international bodies is visibility and its associated advantages. Participation at global level creates visibility for the country. As “The Pearl of Africa”, Uganda has a high profile as a stable and investment-worth destination. Over the years, especially since the hosting of CHOGM in 2007, Uganda has hosted a number of high profile events, including ICT-related ones. For example, the other factor that enabled our #VoteMasambuLobby was the fact that Uganda in 2012 hosted the 35th Assembly of Parties here in Kampala. This made Uganda not just an active member. The more we are visible as a country, the more we sell our country with its natural heritage as a suitable tourist destination. In fact, one of the quick take aways/lessons learnt from these international meetings is the need to always equip our different delegations of officers and leaders that go to different sectorial meetings and events to represent Uganda with a minimum package of information about Uganda and how it should be presented. Correct messaging and branding are key for any countries’ drive to promote tourism and investment. My ministry will soon issue guidelines to all embassies and desk officers in charge of these international partnerships for every sector/ministry, with key descriptive facts about Uganda’s stability, its unique geography, people, places and delicacies. It’s important that every Ugandan official that moves out in an official representative capacity ably presents a good image of our country. It has always to be the best.
Gratitude
I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the immense contribution of the following personalities that made it possible for Uganda to attain these victories;
a) My predecessors in the Ministry of ICT; Rt.Hon. Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Hon. John Nasasira, Hon. Aggrey Awori and Hon. Ham Mukasa- Mulira for having laid a solid foundation and built the good relations among nations in the ICT fraternity.
b) Hon. Sam Kuteesa for providing the enormous diplomatic network that our campaign was able to leverage on in garnering the required support.
c) The Executive Director, UCC for the support and active participation at all these meetings that enabled us gain good reputation.
In addition, I am particularly grateful to our staff and government officers from Uganda Commissions Commission, Uganda Posts, Ministry of ICT and Foreign Affairs that ably backed me to execute the campaign.
I also thank in a special way, our Ambassadors Johnson Agara Olwa of Turkey, Hon Oliver Wonekha of Washington DC. Hon Richard Nduhura and Ambassador Duncan Muhumuza from our Permanent Mission in New York and Ambassador Rosette Nyirikindi from Ministry of foreign affairs for diplomatic frantic efforts in promoting these campaigns. I also thank our other Ambassadors generally in other countries for having responded positively to the tasks we gave them in dealing with the delegations of their respective receiving countries.
Finally, I congratulate all Ugandans for these important victories. Beyond the individual candidates like Masambu that get direct benefits coming with their jobs, the broader benefits to our country are bigger. Let us always celebrate our own identity as Ugandans and be disciplined enough to know that every country or society has got its own internal social and political contradictions. These, however should always remain within us and should never go out to define us. When we all become spin doctors for Uganda we all become winners irrespective of our background.
Frank K Tumwebaze, MP Minister for ICT & National Guidance, Government of the Republic of Uganda
