Government to set up Regional BPO center in Luwero

LUWERO, UGANDA: Government of Uganda through the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda has announced plans to set up a regional business process outsourcing center in Luwero town council.

The ICT hub which is the second in Uganda will be set up at Luwero community hall in Luwero town council. The first BPO center is managed at Statistics House in Kampala city.

Collins Babirukamu, the Director of E-Government Services at NITA-U says that that the project will kick off in the next three weeks with the extension of fiber optic cables, and installing computers at the community hall.

Babirukamu says that once all the works are completed, the BPO resource center will offer tele-surveys, human resource management, data capture, free Wi-Fi, and access to government e-services among others.

Babirukamu added this will help residents to lower costs of production, leverage modern technology, and promote skill development among the youths. The National Information Technology Authority-Uganda has so far laid 4,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables across the country.

Rosemary Namayanja, the Deputy Secretary for National Resistance Movement said that the ICT hub is within the party manifesto to increase productivity among young people.
Namayanja however asked youths to use the increased internet connectivity in the country to fight poverty rather than insulting and abusing people on social media.

Erastus Kibirango, the LC5 chairperson Luwero welcomed the project and promised that the community hall will be surrendered to NITA U to set up the hub so that it can ease access to better internet services in the region.

Moses Mayanja Kizza, the Nakaseke District Speaker says that the project is timely because they have been experiencing poor internet services and struggling to apply for tax identification numbers as well as declare assets as leaders through private cafes.

But Ronald Ndawula ,the former LCV chairman of Luwero has appealed to the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to reduce internet costs to enable people to access it from phones and other gadgets rather than traveling to access it at a hub.

The Permanent Secretary of the ICT Ministry, Dr . Aminah Zawedde speaking on local radio on Thursday revealed that the government will consider reducing costs of access to internet effective next year.