Tag Archives: e-government

Uganda Government Technology adoption comes of age

Posted on June 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

Earlier this year, I had a discussion with one of the key officials at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance in which I told him that Government of Uganda reminds me of the biblical individual who lights a candle and puts it under the table. I was led to make this statement after reviewing a report on various achievements by the ministry which had not been made known to us mere mortals.

Little did I know that the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) had designs to address the matter. After reading adverts online about the inaugural eGov Expo, I had initially taken it lightly thinking that there was nothing much worth my time there. However, come Friday 21st June 2019, the last day of the expo, I made a lightning decision to check it out for old times’ sake. I must admit that I’m glad I went.

At the turn of the century, we used to have the AITEC Computer show which was very big in the circles of the then limited technologists. This show was patronised by private companies that displayed clearly imported hardware and software solutions. There was literally nothing local. Government agencies hardly participated as they had nothing to show case.

Walking into the eGov Expo many years after the expiry of AITEC, I was impressed by the numerous locally developed solutions addressing localised issues. It was a stark difference from the past that I knew. For sure, I summed up my amazement in this tweet:walayi_tweet

To kick off my tour was the Uganda Police App called UPF MOBI. These guys are serious about using technology to ease their work as well as citizens’ interaction. I went through a quick demo to test the service and was amazed at the performance. You can report crime, check any pending tickets on your vehicle, identify nearby police stations complete with contact numbers, search for missing persons as well as search for lost and found property. 

UpfApp

National Social Security Fund, progressive as usual. After ditching their initial App over a year ago, I had given up on being able to enjoy their services using the mobile phone but I guess they had different ideas. The institution managing our Social Security Funds now has a phone and Web Apps aimed at giving clients a service experience across different technology platforms.

I was able to login and have a look at my account. With such a nice interface, one is able to do a lot including among others, adding or removing beneficiaries to your benefits. I noticed that only my first born child had been mentioned in my account but soon, I plan to put all the other family members too.

The ability to project how much money I am likely to have accumulated in the coming years was another very great insight. Worry of inflation aside, the figures look good 10 years from now. You too can just login and check out your account at NSSFGO on the web or the NSSF GO phone App.   

Do you live in Kampala? Do you have a sewage pit that regularly needs emptying? How do you do it now? Weyonje, an App from Kampala Capital City Authority should be able to make your life easier. Whenever you have need of emptying services, you just get into the App and select a service provider of your choice who will then take care of the rest.

Weyonje

We have always been blaming Government officials for using free public email addresses like Yahoo to conduct official communication. I am glad the yells and criticisms never fell on deaf ears. The National IT Authority went ahead to design a collaboration system called Umail that shall be used eventually by all Government staff to do more than just email exchange. Impressive move I must say and already some agencies of government are hooked onto it. We are waiting for the others to kowtow.

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Services was another surprise package for me. They have numerous technology solutions serving citizens. One that I can’t fail to point out is Sauti a child abuse reporting system. Simple and easy to use, one can always call Uganda Child Helpline on 116 a toll free line and submit an issue. Between January 2014 and December 2016, the helpline received 783,052 calls of which 9,709 were child abuse related. 3,543 of these cases were successfully concluded.

Have you ever carried out a research and looked around for secondary data that should be obvious? Well, it has always been hard to get quick access to statistics on Uganda. You sometimes have to download numerous pdf documents online just to seek out one small statistic. Thank God that the Uganda Bureau of Statistics has come to our rescue on this. With an App called UGSTATS, one can for example easily access the information on our annual beef or pork production straight off the phone.

These statistics are very important because for those with investment ideas, they offer a starting point in justifying potential gain or loss from an investment.

Do you now realise why I am excited? Oh yes, there were many other entities there with great solutions but time can’t allow me to cover all of them. However, the plain truth is that something very positive is happening in the Information Technology realm of the Government of Uganda and it requires applauding the efforts of all those toiling behind the scenes to realise it.

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Minister for Finance, Hon Matia Kasaija on a guided tour. Photo Credit: Akandwanaho Joshua

Most of the technological solutions are developed by local companies hence growing the employment base as well as keeping the revenue local in the spirit of Buy Uganda Build Uganda(BUBU).

Special commendation goes to the NITA-U team for pulling this off and it is my hope that next year’s event shall even be bigger. I do however hope that we can see the Uganda Communication Commission play a key role going forward because there is a lot they too have done that is worth amplifying.

James Wire is a Business and Technology Consultant based in Kampala, Uganda.

Follow him @wirejames on Twitter

Email – lunghabo [at] gmail [dot] com

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Stolen National ID Data ~ Questioning The New Vision’s Agenda

Posted on June 25, 2017 | 2 comments

The headline on the front page of the Sunday Vision screamed, PANIC AS NATIONAL ID DATA IS STOLEN. I dropped all I was doing to quickly get myself a copy of the news paper. Being one of those people that have continuously cautioned our government over its handling of electronic data, I was only too eager to see what had been done wrong this time round.

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The screaming Sunday Vision Headline

The title of the article gives one the impression that the folks at the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) were caught napping on duty.

In the article, a one Norbert Kamwebaze was allegedly paid twice for work he did for Roko Construction with the second payment being dished out to an imposter who presented an ID card to Roko that had all his details save for a difference in the face.

The article starts off with a clear indication of the agenda the authors had; “Panic has gripped members of the public after it emerged that confidential data that Ugandans submitted to NIRA could have landed in wrong hands….” Using a very basic example, we have had forgery of permits for a long time in this country where someone lifts all the information of a legitimate permit and only changes the face to reflect his. Why has there never been any doubt cast on Face Technologies over our data? I was irked by the quick conclusion being insinuated in the article yet the details of the story indicate that suspicion should first be cast elsewhere.

Let us look at the issues raised so far and what they mean;

  • Mr. Kamwebaze was contracted by Roko construction to do a job for UGX 51 Million Shillings

  • Upon completion of the job, he was paid in full but not before producing proof of his identity by presenting a National ID which was duly photocopied.

  • Mr. Kamwebaze proceeded to bank the cheque on his account in Barclays bank and it was cleared.

  • A few days later, another person bearing a similar ID appeared at Roko for payment and was issued a cheque for payment.

This is where the story gets an interesting twist. Roko as a company has decent accounting systems in place with well set processes and procedures. I have done work for them before and know that the point persons one deals with when it comes to finances are limited and they usually know even off head who has been paid. The issuance of cheques follows some fairly lengthy procedures and this makes me wonder how a second cheque could have been issued without internal connivance. Is it possible that by coincidence all those who handled the first payment issued were never available when the impostor turned up?

  • The double payment was discovered by the Roko top management.

This is already a pointer that the lower level staff have some serious questions to answer.

  • The impostor opened up an account with the same bank, Barclays using the same bio data as Mr. Kamwesigye, went ahead to ensure the account had the same bank balance as that of the legitimate Kamwesigye and two days later, deposited the cheque of 51 Million. Upon maturity, he withdrew all the money.

This raises some interesting questions. They are:

  1. Could it be that the banking software used by Barclays has no ability to detect duplicates? How could two accounts with similar bio data exist yet having different photographs? Shouldn’t a flag have been raised internally at least first with the Systems Security team?

  2. How did the impostor get to know the details on the legitimate Kamwesigye’s account including bank balance? Was he working with an insider in Barclays? Could there have been collusion between Mr Kamwesigye and this alleged impostor?

Back to the National ID, no where in the article does it indicate the trail to NIRA. There is a presumption that the NIRA database could have been hacked to get this information but this does not appear to hold much water considering that there are still many other ways one would have accessed this ID information. Based on my assessment, these are the first areas of suspicion before casting NIRA in bad light:

  • The impostor could have worked with staff at Roko who availed him the ID information since they already had a photocopy and considering that he picked his money after the real claimant had already got his.

  • The real Mr. Kamwebaze could have connived with the impostor and come up with the new ID that the impostor used.

  • The impostor could have tracked Mr. Kamwebaze and been able to get access to his National ID without his knowledge. Thereafter, he hatched out his plan.

At this point, unless further information is availed showing complicity by NIRA, I am inclined to believe that this was more of social engineering than hacking into the National ID Database.

It is on this note that I would like to register my disappointment with the New Vision for falling prey to the sensationalist headline approach typical of the reckless Ugandan tabloids.

One positive though the article brings out is the need for our public institutions to guard against data pilferage. Remember, the weakest link in any IT systems is the human being. Employ professionals who know what they are doing and are willing to stand by a pre-set code of ethics. We shall minimise the likely occurrence of such.

Eid Mubarak to my Muslim brothers and sisters.

James Wire is a Technology and Small Business Consultant based in Kampala, Uganda

Follow @wirejames on Twitter.

Email lunghabo [at] gmail [dot] com

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