On 14th/June/2012 the uganda's 2012 - 2013 budget was read and in scrutinizing ICT allocation stayed low in fact it was further cut down.
According to New Vision uganda's leading daily news, revenue allocations to the Information and communication (ICT) sector have stayed minimal and unable to put in place appropriate infrastructure to aid the Sector's growth.
Allocations to ICT reduced from Shs 12.1 billion in 2011/12 to 12billion in 2012/13, representing a mere 0.1 percent of the country's 11.1 trillion resource envelope.
In a budget that was once again largely silent about the ICT sector, there was only one positive to note. Next financial year's budget reduced import duty on set-top boxes from 25 per cent to 0 per cent for a period of one year as a way of facilitating the digital migration process.
This comes on the back of the fact that ICT sector continues to be a growth leader, both in terms of revenue and GDP contributions to government. For example, telecoms are the biggest tax payers in the land.
But, even with its fast growth and well known potential, the ICT Sector remains the least funded, with a meager 0.2 per cent of the total budgetary ceiling in the 2010/11 financial year and about o.1 per cent allocation in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 financial years.
Reacting to yesterday's revelation, Mr. Geoffrey Mutabazi, the executive director Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), said: "It is contradictory that ICT is the main driver of growth and yet all the revenues it generates are taken away. How do you expect the industry to grow if you are not investing back?"
He added:"But again government has several ICT projects such as e-governance, e-education and e-health which need funding .Let us wait and see how the private sector will develop ICT in Uganda."
"The allocation of Shs 12billion is a sign that ICT development has been left to the private sector, "Eng. John Mark Ssebunya, an ICT entrepreneur, noted.
However, Mr. Michael Niyitegeka the corporate relations officer at Makerere University College of Computing and Information Science (CIS) said it is important to first understand the country's ICT accomplishments in order to understand its performance and requirements.
"Before you analyze how much has been allocated, we need to first look at what we already have and its significance .much of the ICT resources available are still under-utilized, "he said.
