Executive summary
The analysis in this RIA Uganda Sector Performance Review (SPR) is based on the 2012 Research ICT Africa (RIA) Household and Individual ICT Access and Use Survey for Uganda, which delivered nationally representative results for households and individuals by using enumeration areas prepared by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) combined with suitable sample design.1
Uganda’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector has continued to grow over the last few years, driven especially by demand for both mobile voice and mobile internet services, with the ICT sector contributing 6% of the national GDP in 2010. However, despite this growth, Uganda has the second poorest Networked Readiness Index (NRI) score among the countries surveyed by RIA in 2012, ahead of only Cameroon.
The most significant recent development in Uganda’s ICT sector was the announcement in 2010 of the merger of the two regulators, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the Broadcasting Council (BC), to form one regulatory body, still called the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). This merger was politically motivated and made via a Cabinet decision without Parliamentary input. Only in 2012 was the Uganda Communications Regulatory Authority Bill published as a draft law to consolidate the Uganda Communications Act and Electronic Media Act and provide for the merged regulator…
