Uganda’s journey to a computerised era

About one million Ugandans have access to computers, a number which is still lacking compared to the developed countries. For instance about 120 million people in the US, according to statistics from US Census Bureau have access to a computer.

In the past decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the use of information technology with new applications coming on the market: Skype technology has one making calls using a computer connected to the Internet and teleconferencing which allows meetings between people in different places with a click of the mouse.
What drove this transformation where the laptop and palm top are increasingly becoming items of common usage, and where is it heading?

The beginning
The first computer ever in Uganda was an unwieldy mainframe, which arrived in 1967. According to Dr Ham-Mukasa Mulira, an IT expert, Independence resulted in a rise in government workers so the computer was brought in to help with management of public servant’s payroll.

The mainframe was a huge, heavy metallic box-like object with neither a keyboard, mouse, nor a central processing unit. Instead, it functioned through punch cards, usually operated by women, and it required special skills to operate. It could only be used for adding and subtracting numbers.

It was stationed at the Uganda Computer Services in the Ministry of Finance under the supervision of Mr I.K Kabanda, the then government chief statistician who also spearheaded the training of Uganda’s first computer specialists.

In 1968, the second mainframe arrived and was taken to Makerere University’s department of mathematics and placed under Prof. Paul Mugambi, currently vice chancellor of Nkumba University. It was a preserve for those who were doing mathematics, today’s computer scientists. Later, this was sold to Dr Patrick Mangheni of Uganda Data Services, making him the first Ugandan to offer computer services commercially.

It was not until the mid 80’s that the first desktop Apple was brought to Uganda. I was purchased by Makerere University at the prompting of the then bursar, Mr Khan, to handle the university’s payroll.

The boom
Hardly 50 years since the mainframe’s arrival, there are now hundreds of thousands of computers in the country.

According to Mr Blasio Kigozi, Uganda’s first systems analyst, now in private business; “if the current development is not politicised, IT development in Uganda is headed for good things”.

Now not only IT professionals use computers, but the everyday person, especially in the urbanised part of the country. The noisy type-writers have been replaced by soft touch and sensor key boards, and work which used to take two days during the era of the mainframe, now takes less than an hour to complete.

Productivity levels have definitely moved up with this development. Almost all the nearly 30 universities across the country offer an ICT component on their programme prospectus which means the critical mass required to service the growth is being built in tandem with the increased access. The increase in computer usage and ownership has been boosted by the scrapping of tax on computers. A computer that used to cost about Shs1.6m now goes for as low as Shs500,000.

About one million Ugandans have access to computers, a number which is still lacking compared to the developed countries. For instance about 120 million people in the US, according to statistics from US Census Bureau have access to a computer.

The hurdles
However, last year the government banned the importation of used computers to increase the use of new computers and protect the environment, something which has caused consternation, even amongst government ministers.

A government official, who preferred anonymity in order not to be seen as opposing the wider government policy, told Saturday Monitor that computer usage is most likely to be adversely affected if the ban on used computers is maintained.

“(Few people) in Uganda can afford a brand new computer... I know we take decisions as a team but if used computers are banned then we might take longer to realise what we would have otherwise achieved if they were allowed in the country,” he said.

“If they [government] think computers are dangerous to environment why don’t they ban television sets, because they are even more dangerous than computers?” he asked.Coupled with the ban on the importation of used computers, Uganda’s IT sector faces other challenges.