08 September 2022

Ugandan government plans to reduce the cost of Internet in the country by the end of the year, in a bid to promote the use of digital financial services and increase financial inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Chris Baryomunsi, the country’s minister of ICT and national orientation said the country will more than halve the cost of data it provides through the national backbone fibre from US$70 per Mbps to US$30.

“We’re talking about a purely governmental internet,” he said. “Once we reduce the cost at which the government sells to the service providers, they will automatically reduce the cost that the end user will have to pay and we believe that this will contribute to our efforts to digitize our economy.”

The reduction of internet costs will support the growth of innovations in ICT, digital financial services, communication and e-government services, among others. Several projects to this effect are underway and the most important of them has been completed, according to reports. This is the project on the national backbone infrastructure for data transmission and e-government infrastructure, the cost of which is estimated at US$75m. It will connect all major cities in the country to a network based on fibre optic cable and connect government ministries and departments to the e-government network.

These projects are part of Uganda’s Digital Acceleration Program, which aims to fill gaps in the current infrastructure and accelerate Internet penetration in the country.