A Presentation From The Ministry Of Finance Planning And Economic Development And The

Ministry of ICT & National Guidance Of the Republic of Uganda

28 Feb – 2 March 2017 Dakar, Senegal

By

Ms. Janat Nankya Sanyu

&

Mr. Stephen Mugenyi

1.0: Introduction

2.0: Uganda’s Comprehensive National

Development Planning Framework (CNDPF)

3.0: Alignment of IPoA

4.0: Selected Macroeconomic Performance

Indicators (Uganda)

5.0: Implementation of IPoA in the ICT Sector

6.0: Selected ICT Outcome level statistics

7.0: Challenges and

8.0: Conclusion

Uganda resides within the Horn of Africa

sub-region, which features some of the

fastest growing economies on the

continent and globally in recent years

Rich in natural resources - both renewable

and nonrenewable sources of energy;

Also have vast groundwater reserves,

a significant, untapped agricultural capacity, and

a business community that is increasingly entrepreneurial, innovative, and vibrant.

Uganda developed a Comprehensive Development

Planning Framework (CDPF) that integrates all Global Development agendas and commitments including:

Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA),

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and African Aspirations for

2063 into the National Strategic Planning Processes.

Therefore, the goal of the IPoA to overcome the structural

challenges faced by LDCs in order to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and

enable eventual graduation from the LDC country category

by 2020 fits in well in Uganda development agenda and the

National Vision;

The Uganda National Vision Statement, “A Transformed

Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and

Prosperous Country within 30 years”.

This vision guides the development agenda for Uganda for 30 years by articulating long term aspirations and projections

about the desired future;

The Vision is to be realized through the implementation of six National Development Plans (NDPs).

The major underlying principles of this framework and which

shall be followed by all actors include the following:

Equity and gender equality

Competitiveness

Public Private Partnership (PPP)

Sustainable development

Economic diversification

Participation & ownership

Evidence-based planning

Accountability for development results

IPoA TARGETS UNDER PRIORITY AREA 1: Increasing the productive capacity

The focus of the NDP II is value-addition and this requires both private sector investment expansion of a skilled labor force and capital investment in the short run.

The challenge in ensuring productive capacity has been the weak linkages between production and related trade services.

There is need to re-think the country’s export strategy with a focus on the demand side (where is the market and what quality and prices are in play) rather than over emphasizing the supply side.

Uganda has invested heavily in hydro electricity production

to elevate her electricity consumption per capita (through rural electrification).

Government is committed to improving the supply of energy throughout the country and has put in place an environment to facilitate investment through Private Public Partnerships.

Already underway is the construction of the Isimba dam whose completion will bring on board 183 MW and Karuma hydro power project – the largest in Uganda with 600MW expected before 2020.

Uganda is well on course to ensure energy access to all by 2030 with almost 98% of all districts with electricity connectivity under the rural electrification project.

Food security remains a concern for a substantial part of the population especially in regions prone to floods (eastern Uganda) droughts (north eastern Uganda) and a general crop failure due to the high dependence on rain-fed farming.

The plan is to eradicate hunger with more investments in irrigation, soil fertility and conservation management as well as a state subsidized food distribution system where food can be transported from areas where it is abundant to areas where it is scarce.

Food banks and silos have proven critical to eradication of hunger and current efforts to set up commodity exchange markets and warehouse receipt systems should be a core focus in the coming years.

Uganda is keen to diversify her export base with introduction of new export products in addition to the traditional coffee tea and tobacco.

Expanding the export base will require attracting foreign direct investments in areas like mineral exploration (plans underway to explore further oil and mineral deposits in northern eastern Uganda and Karamoja regions).

Uganda still has potential to expand agro-processing with promising prospects in palm oil, sunflower, and simsim for edible oils; as well as expanding the fruits and beverages sector. Uganda is already producing large quantities of fruits and beverages for the DRC, South Sudan and Rwanda markets.

There are other areas Uganda can tap into and these include milk which can generate $2om per month from organized 50,000 dairy farmers in the cattle corridor alone.

The NDP II identified 12 key flagship products that include coffee; cotton; tea; maize; rice, cassava, beans; fish; beef; milk; citrus and bananas in which Uganda has a competitive advantage. Others like cut-flowers, hides and skins, edible oils and minerals including oil and gas sector are key in contributing to the volume of exports by 2019/2020.

Uganda’s competitiveness and investment climate strategy (CICS) enters its third phase in the later stages of the IPoA and Uganda will be able to identify new commodity clusters to focus on. Already tourism, citrus and business process outsourcing are some of the areas that the CICSII has piloted with positive results.

Uganda has implemented since 1997 the policy of Universal Primary Education that has increased enrolment 2.7 million children in 1996 to 8.5 million by 2013. Aware of this surge in enrolment, we quickly set up a school facilities grant to match this enrolment with requisite school infrastructure. The secondary school enrolment increased and the policy extended under Universal Secondary Education and inclusion of vocational training as well.

The NDP II has emphasized extension of services at health units IV and referral hospitals, where safe deliveries can be done across the country. Working with development partners, there is now an openness to expand contraceptive services and integrating family planning, sexual health and health-care services in national strategies and programs

Uganda met the MDG target to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Under the water sector strategic plan, projects are now underway to provide sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to all by 2020 and Uganda is on track to meet this milestone.

Uganda also achieved a milestone when we passed the national policy framework on social protection. After piloting its landmark programme the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) in 15 districts, Uganda announced a national roll out to 40 new districts over the course of the next 5 years. This will bring Uganda to a total of 55 districts and the SAGE program will enhance social protection systems to improve the resilience of all, including poor and disadvantaged groups

Uganda joined the rest of the world in landmark Paris Conference on climate change in November 2015 that struck a deal with targets to reduce carbon pollution, invest in biodiversity conservation and increase the resilience of countries to address the adverse effects that come with climate change.

Uganda has been a key player under the Nile Basin Initiative (whose headquarters it hosts at Entebbe) that has set up a Decision Support System, a Meteorology facility, and has piloted water resource management projects across the country.

Data is now available to support design of projects and feed into an early warning system to inform responses to eminent floods and droughts.

As part of the financing strategy for the NDP, Uganda is aiming at expanding the tax base to mobilize resources locally to support its national and local government budgets.

Domestic resources are projected to rise by 0.3% of GDP to Shs 14,257 billion in FY2017/18 and over the medium term. This will enable the proportion of the budget financed by domestic resources to rise from a projected 62.4 percent this financial year 2016/17, to 63.8% during FY2017/18, and by approximately 87% by FY2021/22.

The projected domestic revenues Shs 14,257 billion in the next financial year 2017/18, is a 13% increase on the projected outturn for fiscal year 2016/17 and amounts to 13.8% of GDP. It is projected to rise to Shs 16,284 billion or 14.1% of GDP in 2018/19 and further to 23,924 billion, or 15 percent of GDP by 2021/22.

These projections will be driven by reforms in the tax system and efficiency in tax administration, and will require investments in equipment and human resources.

To finance larger investments, Uganda is looking to longer term concessional loans and shorter term grants and co-financed projects partners on strategic public investments.

Over the years Parliament has spearheaded

passage of legislative frameworks and supported the oversight and accountability functions of government providing critical investigations under the Parliaments Public Accounts Committee and other Committees.

We can still do more to ensure advancement of press freedom, expanding debate on issues that affect governance and space for other political parties and processes to contribute freely to strengthen democratic governance.

Economic Growth, Inflation

Uganda has experienced robust GDP growth attributed to a record of prudent macroeconomic management and structural reform which has helped the country to minimize effects of exogenous shocks.

Uganda’s GDP per capita (at constant prices) has increased by 12.7% from USD 711 in 2010 to USD 801 in 2015. Headline inflation is also projected to drop from 5.4% (2016) to 4.8% in 2017/18.

Financial Years 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

Real GDP Growth 5.1% 4.8% 5.0% 5.5%

Annual Headline Inflation (Aver.)

3.0% 6.6% 5.4% 4.8%

Annual Core Inflation (Aver.)

3.3% 6.7% 4.8% 4.6%

Poverty Reduction

Uganda recorded impressive rates of poverty reduction in the last two decades.

Proportion of population living in poverty—more than halved from 1993 to 2013

The national poverty line declined from 56.4% in 1993 to 31.1% (2006) and further to 19.7% in 2013.

Proportion of households living below the international extreme poverty line of US$1.90 a day (2011 prices) fell from 68.1% in 1993 to 34.6% in 2013.

Poverty Reduction

Poverty Reduction

Despite a remarkable reduction in monetary

poverty, the country still faces widespread

deprivation in several non-monetary dimensions of

poverty mainly improved sanitation, access to

electricity, education (completion and progression),

and child malnutrition.

This warrants a continued focus on improving the access and quality of these basic services.

Under the IPoA goals and targets; section 45(c) focuses

on significantly increasing access to telecommunication

services and striving to provide 100 per cent access to the

Internet by 2020

This is in line with sustainable development goal 9 to build

resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable

industrialization and foster innovation

GoU has taken steps in an effort to achieve this target by

implementing the a number of programmes:

1. National Backbone Infrastructure Project (NBI)

2. Regional Infrastructure Communication Project (RCIP)

3. Rural Communications Development Fund (Universal

Communication Access Fund) among others

National Backbone Infrastructure/ e-Government

Infrastructure has two components:

a) National Data Transmission Infrastructure (NBI) and

b) e-Government Infrastructure (EGI).

Objectives:

Connect all major towns with high-speed Optical Fibre

Cable based Network through the NBI

Connect all Governments Institutions (MDA & Local

Governments) onto an e-Government Network

Connect all Special Interest Groups (Schools,

Tertiary Institutions, Hospitals etc)

Through this project we have acquired an

alternative route to the undersea cables at

Mutukula through Tanzania to the East African

Submarine cables and also connected Uganda to

the Rwandan border at Katuna;

Regional Communications Infrastructure Communication Project (RCIP)

A loan of US$75 million has been secured from the WB to support IT connectivity and e-government services delivery in Uganda over the next six (6) years under RCIP project.

Approvals by relevant authorities such as the World Bank, Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda were obtained

Implementation led by National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) started in May 2016 and will continue until Feb 2022

The objective of the project is to transform public

service delivery using ICT to improve efficiency

through:

enabling greater access to Internet broadband,

and

improve Government productivity through

greater use of e-services

The project is expected to contribute to achieving

the goals of improving broadband affordability

and access to the internet.

Universal Access Fund /Rural Communication Development Fund (RCDF)

Created in 2003 to address distortions of liberalization in ICT sector particularly that of leaving certain areas and communities unserved or underserved with certain communication services

The Fund also focuses on 3 aspects key for development of Uganda as an information society:

o Expansion of coverage of the Rural Communications Development Policy

o Provision of Broadband Connectivity.

o Support for Content Development

While Uganda’s economy remains fundamentally sound, recent challenges has given rise to economic conditions that pose significant risks for the economy.

The major risks that will impede achievement of our economic targets include:

1. Inadequate resources to implement programs articulated in the Comprehensive Development Planning Framework

2. Unpredictable and adverse weather conditions with negative impact on agricultural production;

3. Regional geo-political risks - instability in neighboring countries, Uganda’s major trading partners that further hamper export growth and lower global growth that constrains exports

4. Trends in the global financial market which could result in higher interest rates and increase the costs for external financing are also a major risk.

5. Structure of the Population that will sustain a high dependency ratio

6. Volatility in the exchange rate amidst trade imbalance;

7. Low public investments in critical sectors especially agriculture and tourism;

8. Structural challenges related to inefficiencies in procurement and contract management;

9. High youth unemployment;

10. Insufficient investment in human development and social sectors;

11. Lack of a coordinated framework aimed a joint contribution to set targets;

12. Weak data and public sector M&E systems;

1. Uganda has set out an ambitious agenda for its future; its 2040 Vision foresees a middle-income country with the majority of its citizens living in urban areas, having smaller families, and earning income in non-agricultural sectors.

2. Sustained gains in poverty reduction & achievement her vision will require a fundamental shift in nature of production - from low investment, informal activities to higher-capital, more productive employment and a more rapid reduction in fertility rates

3. To make this happen, effective public investment in key services like education, health, agricultural extension, & safety nets will be crucial.

4. While considerable efforts to mobilize domestic resources for development have been made, Uganda still faces a huge financing gap and this will require additional support from Development Partners

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND

ATTENTION