Government to register, fund innovators

KAMPALA. All innovators seeking government funding to support their creations will have to wait until Cabinet approves a framework policy paper that contains guidelines on how the innovation fund will be managed.
The framework paper was submitted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation on Friday.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Mr David Obong, revealed that once the framework paper is approved by Cabinet, then the ministry will start implementation.

“We want to create a databank of all innovators in the country so that when the innovation fund is approved, we can easily identify who is eligible for funding and we would like to assure all innovators that government is ready to fund them as long as their innovations are worth it,” Mr Obong said on Friday during the unveiling of the ministry’s strategic plan.
The policy framework, Mr Obong said is anchored on five key aspects including funding, implementation, policies, technology transfer with other countries, coordination among ministries and internal partnerships and development of sector plan.
This policy framework, if approved, will help the ministry to identify the role of each stakeholder or partner as far as innovations in Uganda is concerned to avoid duplication of roles.
Mr Obong further stressed that although the ministry is targeting funding from donors, the funding for the first two years will come from government.
“We requested for Shs500 billion to support innovations and the number of innovators to support will be determined by the funding which we shall get from government. But successful innovators will first sign MoUs with government before they get the funds. We shall ensure that there is transparency during implementation,” he said.