ICT Regulation Working Group Update

Dear ICTAU Members,

This letter is an update regarding ICTAU’s engagement with the Ministry of ICT (MoICT) and National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U) regarding the ICT Practitioners Bill.

In November 2016, the government of Uganda implemented a highly controversial bill that requires all organizations and individuals in the information technology and telecommunications sector to apply for a costly license to operate from a private ICT services firm called COMTEL. As part of this process, applicants are required to submit highly confidential information including strategic business plans and detailed financial statements. Failure to comply can result in both financial penalties and imprisonment.

 In July 2017, the ICTAU board of directors created a task force with a mandate to engage the MoICT and NITA-U in a dialogue about our membership’s objection to this bill as per our letter to the Minister of ICT dated 9th August, 2017. This task force held its first meeting with NITA-U’s Board of Directors on 19th September, 2017. At this meeting it was agreed that all parties (NITA-U, MoICT, and ICTAU) would form a joint working group in order to find mutually agreeable solutions to the concerns raised by the ICTAU membership.

 This joint working group held meetings over the course of several months. It was quickly determined that repealing the bill was not a workable solution, so further discussions focused on identifying ways to mitigate its negative effects. On October 18th 2017, the joint working group agreed on a number of concrete modifications that would resolve nearly all of the problems introduced by the original bill. This was a very constructive and positive meeting, chaired by the Permanent Secretary Mr Bagiire Vincent, which we walked away from with optimism.

 However, there has been no visible progress toward a resolution since that meeting and the agreed changes remain unimplemented. ICTAU has followed up aggressively but has unfortunately not received any clear information about the current state of progress. We have only been told that the MoICT will communicate more information to us in the future but have yet to receive any feedback.

 In light of this delay, we thought it prudent to update our membership. Rest assured that we will continue to follow up until such time that we receive a satisfactory confirmation that the agreed changes were enacted or a renewed way forward emerges.

 Sincerely,

TMS Ruge

ICT Regulation Working Group Chair

ICTAU