Uganda’s government has put plans in motion to enable cloud-computing in the country. The cloud will serve as a data centre through which Ugandan citizens can access information from government ministries, agencies and departments.
“It is important in that it supports infrastructure sharing and access to information, which is a key to development. Once we implement this, you will just hold your equipment, which has Internet and then access whatever you want,” said James Saaka, the executive director of NITA-U (National Information Technology Authority).
The NITA-U is driving the initiative, one the organisation believes will provide for more affordability, security, features and accessibility across a number of different devices.
According to Leadership, “sector experts said that as the government moves into e-government, this is the right time for it to join the platform. They also say that using the solution helps government do away with paperwork, which is said to be riskier than other modes of information storage.”
It is still unclear how much the service would cost, but other state departments have already implemented cloud computing, like Uganda’s Revenue Authority. The company started using an e-tax system so that tax payers can make use of the Internet to apply for any type of license.
Cloud computing is not without risk. Crispus Ombogo, the partner systems engineer for sales at Cisco Systems Management, warned that the Ugandan government needs to implement better online security and develop their Internet infrastructure.
“A poor backbone infrastructure cannot support this solution,” Ombogo said.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
Indeed the infrastructure needs to be able to support this solution otherwise it will just be a lot of taxpayers money gone to waste.