The Uganda government is planning to implement cloud computing in order for its citizens to attain access to information on government ministries, agencies and departments
NITA-U (National Information Technology Authority) has been driving the initiative in Uganda and said that the technology would provide more affordability, security, features and accessibility of information across a number of Internet-enabled devices.
James Saaka, executive director of NITA-U, said, “The technology supports infrastructure sharing and access to information, which is a key to development.
“Once this is implemented, any citizen can access information about the government and departments at any given time.”
Sector experts have said that as the government moved into e-governence, it could do away with paperwork, which was riskier than other modes of information storage.
It remained unclear how much the service would cost, but other state departments such as Uganda’s Revenue Authority have already implemented cloud computing. The department launched an e-tax system for tax payers to make use of the Internet to apply for any type of license.
The government will, however, prepare for a series of risk factors that have been identified. Crispus Ombogo, partner systems engineer for sales at Cisco Systems Management, warned that the Ugandan government needed a better online security and development of its Internet infrastructure for the success of the cloud computing technology.
“A poor backbone infrastructure cannot support this solution,” Ombogo said.
