[IEEE 2014 IST-Africa Conference & Exhibition - Le Meridien Ile Maurice, Pointe Aux Piments, Mauritius (2014.5.7-2014.5.9)] 2014 IST-Africa Conference Proceedings - Cloud computing

IST-Africa 2014 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2014 ISBN: 978-1-905824-44-1

Copyright © 2014 The authors www.IST-Africa.org/Conference2014 Page 1 of 8

Cloud Computing can Reshape Uganda’s Development

Collins MWESIGWA

Icon Frontiers (U) Limited, Plot 874 Block 216 Suite A3, Old Kiira road, Ntinda, Kampala, 256, Uganda, Tel: +256 752 80 78 90, Email: [email protected]

Abstract: The use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to improve how goods are produced and services are delivered and consumed is a feature of everyday life in the developed countries. ICT, if deployed appropriately, has the potential to vastly boost productivity. Cloud computing is being viewed as a potential area by businesses and government agencies in Africa to improve efficiency and effectiveness of business operations in government and business enterprises. Uganda is predominantly an Agricultural society that needs infrastructure to boost productivity, access to markets and management of the business processes. The potential and impact of cloud computing therefore is undoubtedly quantifiable especially for Ugandan small and medium scale enterprises that run on relatively low budget. Through literature review and interaction with business entities in both public and private sector, this paper therefore supports, encourages and recommends the application of cloud computing to facilitate especially in government and SMSEs like agricultural cooperatives increased productivity and effective service delivery. Key words: ICT, Cloud Computing, productivity, service delivery, SMSEs

1. Introduction Africa has continued to embrace the use of Information and Communications Technology for development through the formulation of appropriate policies, creation of an enabling environment for private investment in ICT and the provision of infrastructure for ICT growth. Access to internet bandwidth is improving through technologies like 3G, WI Max, Fibre and Satellite and this can be attributed to increase in literacy rates, the increased demand for information services in both the rural and urban centres, the growth and competition in the private sector, the need for effective service delivery by governments and the increased global investment in ICT infrastructural development. [1]

The economic case for the contribution of ICT to economic growth is illustrated in Figure 1 below. The postulated relationship between access to ICT and economic growth is spelt out through a five-step process starting at the bottom of the pyramid. [12] The economic justification for providing better access to ICT is that up to-date and reliable information about markets and availability of resources can be more easily disseminated to even hard to reach areas. The recipients of the information are then better able, as both producers and consumers, to participate in effective markets. The immediate consequence should be income gains for participants, and the ability to better spend their incomes. Over the long term, enhanced access to information should enable producers to significantly improve their practices. Such improvement lays the path to economic growth. [5]


Figure 1: Economic case for the contribution of ICT to economic growth

Efforts to integrate IT into business with institutions (Public and private) in Africa are capital intensive. Businesses and government institutions incur high costs to purchase hardware, software, software licenses, and maintain the infrastructure. This therefore increases the cost of doing business, which ultimately affects demand and supply [4].

Use of shared resources, through for example deployment of cloud computing can provide a cost effective relief and satisfy the need of government and small and medium scale businesses, including Agro-business to boost production and service delivery.

According to Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Internet access in Uganda is approximately 10% of the total population [11]. Internet access in Africa averages at 7% of the world population as illustrated in the table below. The low access to the Internet has therefore impacted on the innovation capacity of businesses, adoption of Internet based service delivery by government and ultimately consumption of Internet based services. [6]

Table 1: Internet Usage and World Population Statistics (June30, 2012)

1.1. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is where shared ICT resources, software and information are provided over a large networked environment like the Internet. Cloud computing provides services that are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service such as data centres (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) such as online scanners. [2]


Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to allow sharing of resources such as computing power, memory, storage, on-line applications and networking infrastructures. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without high capital intensive investment on infrastructure and to access services through the Internet. Global players like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, HP, and IBM have developed private clouds that support their business applications and provide services to many of their clients worldwide. [2]. The presence of big players in the cloud computing business in Africa is very small.

2. Objectives The main objective of this paper is to demystify the role of cloud computing in improving performance and competitiveness of Government, small and medium scale businesses.

This paper further seeks to establish the need for setting up of cloud computing infrastructure (data centres) in Uganda and the East African Region to provide shared and well managed services to support business in government and the private sector.

3. Methodology A literature review on cloud computing and its applications in Uganda and Africa in general was undertaken to establish the extent to which cloud computing is relevant to and influencing the way of conducting business in government and private enterprises.

Interaction with and observation of different business establishments in Uganda also informed the basis for this paper.

4. Related Developments in Uganda There are a number of developments in the ICT sector and particularly in the advancement of the integration of ICT in both government and private business. These developments in infrastructural development or availability of markets for internet-based services directly or indirectly provide an opportunity for cloud computing to thrive. Below are some of the developments in cloud computing in Uganda. 1. Uganda witnessed a large increase in the number of mobile subscribers over the last

eight years. In 2013 the number of mobile subscribers reached 14,840,687 operating under 6 network operators. The number of Fixed Internet Service Providers and Mobile Internet Subscribers reached 8 and 3,061,374 respectively [11].

2. The Government of Uganda (GOU) has realized the contribution of enterprises and established several support institutions to nurture enterprise growth, performance and competitiveness. The GOU is in the process of enacting a Medium and Small Scale Enterprises (MSME) policy to enable them access e-information to enhance their market access, technology transfer and financial management.

3. The GOU is also in the process of establishing the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI), which is expected to link Uganda’s major cities and thus provide diversified ICT services like Internet, VoIP and video conferencing. This is in addition to the potential benefits of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) platform, which is expected to offer telemarketing services, customer support services and other value-added services that are likely to benefit enterprises in the medium term [10].

4. Following the approval of an e-government policy framework, NITA-U was tasked to work closely with various government agencies to develop a “shared corporate services infrastructure” to map out its architecture for the country’s e-government infrastructure. In June 2011, the Office of the Prime Minister in Uganda also tasked all MDAs to use e-government equipment as provided for in the E-government policy framework [10].


5. The Virtual University of Uganda (VUU) is the pioneer university in Uganda using cloud-based technology to drive its IT systems. No more need for local servers that are subject to power outages, no need for more extensive support for mail servers … everything is in the cloud and this makes it much more stable. And the best of all is that everything is simple to use. The complex back end work is done by the experts; the front end user is in safe hands.

6. NITA-U and UNBS are government organizations that are spearheading the process of formulation, review and adoption of ICT related standards for example Hardware / software, applications, processes, project management and technologies within Government for consistence and efficiency [10].

7. The Government of Uganda, through NITA-U is spearheading the process of formulating a multi-sectoral national CERT for emergency and incidence handling of security related incidences. This provides an opportunity therefore for continuity of services [10].

8. Various private sector initiatives have taken shape in the provision of private premium rated cloud computing services notably MTN Uganda, Airtel Uganda, Computer Point Uganda among others. Individual organizations purchase cloud services mostly, storage services for backup and recovery.

5. Business Case

5.1. Case 1

In Uganda, agriculture is a key sector for socioeconomic transformation. Agriculture contributes 20% of GDP, accounts for 48% of exports and employs 73% of the population. Although agriculture provides the main source of income for the population, farmers suffer from disadvantages and inefficiencies, due to their higher operating cost, narrow market reach and limited access to agricultural related information. This is the reason why farmers constitute themselves into groups commonly known as cooperatives.[]

Currently there are over 10,746 registered cooperative societies with a membership of about 4 million. These cooperatives are mainly involved in agriculture marketing and production, savings and credit. They play a major role in financial resource mobilization, agro-processing, marketing of agricultural produce and the provision of other services like transport. As shown below, “the status of cooperatives in Uganda”, a high proportion of cooperatives are involved in agricultural marketing and produce.

Table 2: Status of cooperatives in Uganda

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

Cooperatives face several challenges, including lack of access to reliable markets that pay competitive prices, weak internal operations and lack of access to modern technology and information. This is partly due to the lack of capacity to engage, use and apply ICTs to facilitate key business processes. There is currently a deliberate strategy to provide


continuing member education in skills that should ultimately increase members’ savings, capital accumulation, investment, employment and incomes. The cooperatives however have not been in a position to provide this training support to their members mainly because of budgetary constraints.

Cooperatives in Uganda have similar governance structures and internal management processes and therefore can adopt shared resources and tools like ERPs and web portals for improved and effective operations.

Figure 2: diagrammatic representation of a typical structure for cooperative organizations in Uganda.

5.2. Case 2

In a bandwidth capacity survey conducted, by NITA, 101 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Government of Uganda, 81 MDAs that provided responses towards the survey and the findings are given below [10].

Table 3: Average monthly Capacity of Bandwidth and Cost of in Uganda shillings by type of MDA

Type of MDA Number of MDAs Average Bandwidth in Mbps Average Cost in UGX Total Cost in UGX

Agency 59 2.2 5,823,708 343,598,772 Arms of state 2 4.5 7,010,426 14,020,852 Department 3 4.8 7,759,706 23,279,118 Ministry 17 2.4 7,719,509 131,231,653 Grand Total 81 512,130,395

The monthly expenditure indicated above accrues to approximately 6.2 billion Uganda shillings per annum, and this is exclusive of maintenance costs, purchase of software and hardware, and licensing [10].

Government ministries, departments and agencies thrive on data and information sharing and therefore require standard data structures. This requires ICT infrastructure to facilitate standardization of applications across government organizations for consistency [10].


6. Technology Description In cloud computing, business and enterprise applications and infrastructure are hosted centrally in data centres and services are remotely accessed over the Internet through mobile phones, computers and any other appropriate ICT gadgets. The cloud may or may not be privately owned but for purposes of ownership and more control, this paper recommends private clouds especially for government applications. Figure 3 below is a representation of a typical cloud computing architecture.

Figure 3: Cloud Computing architecture

Figure 4: Cloud Computing benefits

Cloud computing therefore presents opportunities for users especially in weak economies like in Africa to access affordable high performance infrastructure, more advanced technologies, and incur lesser costs of hardware, software and maintenance. Africa therefore stands to benefit greatly from this technological advancement.


According to NITA, the Government of Uganda spends approximately 6.3 billion Uganda shillings on Internet subscription only per year. This is an expenditure that can be rationalized to provide more impactful services through the deployment of cloud computing technologies. [10]

Integration of cloud computing into business in Uganda therefore will provide the following opportunities; 1. The costs related to accomplishing institutional functions. As noted in South Africa and

China where cloud computing has been deployed by IBM, Microsoft and other players, cloud computing can lead to cost cuts of up to 30% thus leading to operational efficiency and productivity gains.

2. Most MDAs and organizations in Uganda have weak security mechanisms due to limited human resource like certified security professionals but also due to lack of adequate resources to deploy the necessary security infrastructure. Cloud computing therefore provides a model that works for governments and small and medium scale enterprises.

3. Cloud computing can support standardization of data structures and platforms for consistency across government organizations. Hosting ERP solutions will provide other applications for MDA’s along with a centralized managed infrastructure facilitates reduced costs on bandwidth expenditure, maintenance and the overall purchase cost of hardware and software. This is a service that can attract markets in Uganda and beyond.

4. Cloud Computing will provide a low cost of access to high performance (high bandwidth, low latency and stable network connection) infrastructure for data centre hosting. This provides for professional data handling, data backups and disaster recovery options. Institutions can develop applications delivered to their users over the Internet, hence no need to buy servers and upfront licensing, affordability of software licensing being one of Africa’s biggest challenges.

5. Access/use/interaction with new technologies at no extra cost. Cloud computing will provide Africa with an opportunity to access multiple open source tools that can be applied to their computing needs thus reducing the licensing burden on the resource constrained African users.

6. Improved productivity of businesses through automation of the management information systems and operations including advertising, marketing and sales

7. Ease of access to both open source and proprietary information in journals and online libraries increased visibility and an improved image of African states to the rest of the world thus more opportunities in for investment, tourism, trade, employment and access to international markets.

8. Facilitation of e-governance to improve service delivery especially in the public sector and ease of information sharing between government institutions and the citizens.

9. Increased access to employment opportunities for the African unemployed youth and professionals in journalism, broadcasting, money markets and education.

10. Improvement in the education sector through e-learning and online exchanges between different academic institutions, students and tutors.

7. Conclusions and recommendations In Africa and particularly in Uganda, the demand and integration of ICTs into business continues to grow and this demand can be met by absorption and deployment of cloud computing. This therefore can benefit government and SMSEs.


Cloud computing will not solve all of the problems but will significantly contribute to the social economic transformation of Uganda and the East African region as a whole as it is evident in countries like South Africa, China and India.

Government and other small and medium scale enterprises can achieve more, by saving on investment in the ICT infrastructure (hardware, Software, licensing and maintenance) and leveraging on the advantages of embracing cloud computing to generate more revenue.

African governments and their development partners have to enhance sensitization and awareness of the populace about the opportunities cloud computing provides, help make the cost of internet bandwidth affordable and invest more in the development of ICT infrastructure to increase access to services to wider and more remote areas.

As cloud computing continues to grow from its infant stage, it must be seen to support economic and institutional realities facing Governments, Small and Medium scale enterprise. The impact will include productivity gain, development of innovative services, and efficient supply chain management especially for the farmers, implementation of B2B e-commerce and development of a skilled workforce.

Africa must therefore be ready and start working towards investing in infrastructure for provision of cloud computing services. As evidenced in China, government support and making cloud computing a national priory will foster its development and growth. In Uganda, therefore, NITA-U needs more government commitment in terms of funding to build clouds to support government applications and businesses.

There is a need to intensify efforts to provide a legal and regulatory framework for confidence building in cloud computing technologies especially with very pertinent issues like privacy and confidentiality of data/information. Privacy is often a key concern and therefore an obstacle to the adoption of cloud computing services. This will be a key driver for the successful implementation and development of cloud computing especially in Uganda where the technology is so much needed.

References [1] Nir Kshetri, Professor, Business Administration, University of North Carolina - Greensboro PTC’10

Proceedings, “cloud computing in developing economies: drivers, effects and policy measures” [2] G. Lee, D. A. Patterson, A. Rabkin, I. Stoica, and M. Zaharia. Above the clouds: A Berkeley, “view of

cloud computing. Technical Report UCB/EECS-2009- 28, EECS Department”, University of California, Berkeley, Feb 2009.

[3] R. Aversa, B. Di Martino, M. Rak, and S. Venticinque, “Cloud agency: A mobile agent based cloud system”. In CISIS, pp. 132137, 2010.

[4] Maxwell Omwenga Momanyi, Julianne Suzzanne Sansa-Otim, Agnes F. Namulinda Lumala, “Robust Mobile Cloud Services Through Offline Support”, African Conference of Software Engineering and Applied Computing, 2012.

[5] Venansius Baryamureeba, “ICT as an Engine for Uganda’s Economic Growth: The Role of and Opportunities for Makerere University”

[6] World internet usage and population statistics, June 30, 2012 [7] Communications Africa, “Ugandan government to implement cloud computing”, Website Article,

Monday, 06 August 2012 07:10, [8] Technology Banker, “Cloud Computing Service for SMEs Launched in Uganda” [9] Compuware, Uniface, “Cloud computing trends and business opportunities” 2010 [10] National Information and Technology Authority – Uganda (NIAT-U) [11] Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) [12] Eggleston, K; Jensen, R; and Zeckhauser, R; 2002, “Information and communication technologies,

markets and economic development”, in G. Kirkman et al. the Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World. Oxford University Press, New York, p 71

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[IEEE 2014 IST-Africa Conference & Exhibition - Le Meridien Ile Maurice, Pointe Aux Piments, Mauritius (2014.5.7-2014.5.9)] 2014 IST-Africa Conference Proceedings - Cloud computing