Ugandan businesses have been asked to embrace digitalization and data integration to improve their business processes. 

Hallet Virginie, Portfolio Manager, Enabel, made the call during an information-sharing workshop organised by Enabel, the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA U) at Hotel Africana on March 15, 2022.

The session was organised under the auspices of the Skills, Attitude, Governance and Anti-Corruption Project (SG+ Project). 

“The SG+ Project is here to address the two main bottlenecks of conducting business in Uganda; lack of a skilled workforce and then governance and corruption,” explained Virginie.

She intimated that in nearly every country Enabel and other development partners come across the same paradox: “the private sector does not find it easy to do business with government resulting from issues such as corruption and limited access to information regarding tenders and procurements.”

She added that the SG+ project will greatly improve Uganda's business environment by increasing the supply of qualified workers, establishing private sector-led initiatives to fight corruption and strengthening the private-public sector dialogue. 

“We encourage homegrown solutions to problems. That is why we are going to build on already existing solutions developed by the government and other partners to improve the business environment. We shall focus on e-procurement, digitalisation and data integration, fostering corporate governance and establishing a private-sector led corruption reporting mechanism,” Virginie emphasised. 

The SG+ Project is a 5m Euro project funded by the European Union and implemented by Enabel and PSFU. Other organisations such as NITA U and the Public Procurement Disposal Authority (PPDA) support PSFU in specific areas such as Digitalisation, Data integration and E-procurement respectively. This project is expected to devise means to better public governance and service delivery.

At the session, Francis Kisirinya, Deputy CEO, PSFU noted that the SG+ Project will improve the competitiveness of the private sector. 

Dr. Hatwib Mugasa, Executive Director, NITA U said digitalization and data integration will improve Uganda from a peasant nation to a knowledge-based country.

“We believe that the private sector is the driving force for this transformation,” Dr Mugasa retorted.  

“Digitalisation will greatly reduce the cost of doing business and also reduce the barriers that bring corruption by minimizing human interaction in the procurement processes,” concluded Dr Ruth Biyinzika Musoke, project director, PSFU. 

The event was attended by over 100 representatives from the business sector.