IICD supported project: ICT Maintenance Facility for Rural Uganda

Countries: Uganda [UG]
Sectors: livelihood

Summary

At five Uganda Technical Colleges (UTCs) a ‘ICT Maintenance Facility’ will be set up to provide technical support to rural Uganda, and to introduce a new course called ‘ICT Installation and Maintenance’ at the same colleges to train technicians who can provide technical support. The five UTCs are located in or near upcountry towns and are geographically well distributed in the country. The maintenance facility will not only take care of more than 100 pieces of ICT equipment in the first year and rising to about 500 by the fifth year, it will serve as a facility to offer industrial training to the technicians who will take the new two-year diploma course.

Update

Updated: 2005-08-01

The training of lecturers and technical maintenance is well on its way. The equipment has been procured and installed. The renovation exercise for the training labs (at UTC Kichwamba and UTC Bushenyi) and for the maintenance workshops at the UTCs, has been completed in all the five UTCs. Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF) is funding connectivity for UTCs for an additional 18 months. An extension contract will be put in place this year. The project will focus on business development and aims to be sustainable in 2006.

Introduction

From the Roundtable workshop “ICT for Rural Development” the ICT in Vocational Education project was formulated and the promoters are the three Uganda Technical Colleges (UTCs) namely UTC Elgon, UTC Lira, UTC Masaka, supported by UICT. The training component of this project was introduced in the ICT Maintenance Facility for Rural Uganda project to bring on board the remaining two UTCs namely UTC Bushenyi, and UTC Kichwamba.

ICTs are rapidly getting introduced at various institutions in rural Uganda. However a number of them are not in use due to simple technical problems, and those that are operational are not optimally utilised. There is no local technical support available, and such support from Kampala is too expensive. The maintenance facility and training of technicians to be introduced under this project will overcome this problem and indeed encourage the use of ICTs in rural Uganda.

Regarding government policy, the long-term national development objective of the government of Uganda is poverty eradication hence the government is committed to reducing the level of absolute poverty from 44% (1997) to below 10% by 2017. The Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) was drawn up with the aim of achieving this target. Since about 80% of Uganda’s population is rural based (and poverty is highest there), many programmes resulting from PEAP are targeting rural areas. Introducing ICTs in these programmes will bring about efficiency; hence improve the success of implementation of these programmes.

Objectives

It is generally recognized that ICTs can play an important role in rural development, especially as decentralization of district administration is implemented. The Local Governments will increasingly perform many functions that were previously performed by the central government, which will require ICTs for effective and efficient performance. Both government and development agencies have recognized this and various efforts are being made to introduce ICTs in rural areas. One notable example is Uganda Communications Commission, which has set up a ‘Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF)’ specifically targeting communication for rural areas. This Development Fund is providing support for the project since April 2004 by providing the financial support for Internet Connectivity for the 5 UTCs (investment as well as recurrent connectivity costs). In May 2005 UCC agreed on request of the Programme manager of IICD to continue this support for another 18 months. The objective of this project is to develop capacity to provide ICT technical support in upcountry towns, thus contributing to national development.

Specific project objectives are:

• To facilitate and promote the application and use of ICTs in the development process, especially in rural Uganda;
• The provide technical support to ICT installations in upcountry and rural settings, and reduce dependence on support from Kampala, which is expensive, due travel and per diem costs, and thus reduce ICT operating costs;
• To earn an income for the UTCs from maintenance services, which income will be applied to offsetting college expenses;
• To develop capacity by training users to handle ICT equipment properly, carry out some preventive maintenance and remedy common equipment failures, and generally inculcate a culture of maintenance in users;
• To set up maintenance facility based at the five Uganda Technical Colleges and UICT, and develop capacity at the UTCs to support the maintenance facility;
• To start an ICDL Training and Certification Centre at the UTCs, and start training and testing students according to ICDL syllabus and standards;
• To train at least three instructors/lecturers from each of the two additional UTCs in ICT basic skills, ICT technical support skills, and skills in training students in these subjects; and,
• To provide ICT technical support skills to selected students. A new diploma course in ‘ICT Installation and Maintenance’ will be introduced at the Technical Colleges.

Planned outputs

The basic project idea is to develop capacity to support ICTs in rural Uganda, where ICTs are playing an increasingly important role in the development process. The project aims to:

• Set up an ‘ICT Maintenance Facility’ to provide technical support to rural Uganda;
• Introduce a new course at the UTCs to train technicians who can provide technical support; and,
• Make the UTCs ICDL training and test centres, and offer ICDL training and testing.

The maintenance facility will not only provide technical support to rural Uganda, it will also serve as a practical training facility for the technicians to be trained. The maintenance facility will, among other things, provide:

• Field experience in ICT maintenance to the trainee technicians,
• Business skills in operating a maintenance facility, since many of the technicians will be self employed, as stated elsewhere.

Setting up a maintenance facility will involve preparing workshop space, procuring equipment and tools and setting up a workshop, hiring a maintenance expert while the UTCs’ own technicians are further trained and acquire experience, and marketing the services to potential clients in the UTC catchments area. Programmes for industrial training for students taking the Diploma in ICT Installation and Maintenance will be arranged and run by the maintenance facility.

Starting the new course at the UTCs will involve training existing lecturers to teach the new course, preparing space for a computer training lab to take at least 1 server, 10 workstations, and sit at least 20 students, procuring specified equipment for the training lab, and installing it. Training of technicians will start after the lecturers complete their own training. The syllabus for both the lecturers and the technicians was designed by the Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology and approved by its Academic Board.

Development Impacts

This project will have a significant impact on development, since by encouraging use of, and maintaining ICT equipment in rural areas, the many development programmes and projects based there will be implemented more efficiently.

The direct beneficiaries are the UTCs are the students and teachers of the UTCs. By establishing a maintenance facility it is expected that the UTCs will generate income out of this project. The services provided by the maintenance service will provide the technical support to the surrounding areas. In addition, the project will also emphasize on the improvement of knowledge about technical aspects of ICTs.

Management and organisation

The Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology (UICT) was established by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to provide quality market-driven and sustainable training, research and consultancy services that support the ICT sector. The vision of UICT is to be a leading Centre of Excellence supporting ICT enable human resource development in Uganda and beyond. The project management team is very enthusiastic and consist of competent trainers. The project teams at the UTCs are committed to implement the project.

Market and finance

As indicated above the target market includes the UTCs and its students. Revenues are generated through the ‘selling’ of the ICDL course and the provision of services by the maintenance facility. Budget re-allocations by the respective UTCs form a part of the revenues.

Results

UICT signed an agreement with IICD as the project implementation agency in March 2002. The initial setting up of the ICT training facilities and the instructor training was accomplished successfully.

The ICT skills training programmes began well at the UTCs. These programmes were quickly embedded in the existing diploma programmes at the UTCs and are running on smoothly. Students pay an extra compulsory fee to enrol on these programmes. All UTCs benefit financially from these additional fees and for instance UTC Masaka was able to acquire ten (10) more second hand computers to cater for the high students’ population from the proceeds of this compulsory fee.

However, the ICT Maintenance and Installation diploma programme has not taken off well as planned. UTC Lira and UTC Masaka have been able to enrol students to this programme. UTC Elgon will admit students for the diploma programme scheduled to start next academic year beginning October 2005.

Lessons learned

It has become apparent that the UTCs need more time to develop a business oriented maintenance facility in their institutions.

During the project review meeting with IICD early 2005, some critical issues were identified which if not addressed may limit the project from meeting its objectives. The issues identified included: Facilitation of Principal Forum Meeting and Support visits, Maintenance Facility at UICT, Consultancy development to set up ICT and Engineering Labs, General business development training, and Capacity building.

Budget

The project requires a grant to finance investments, up to Euros 112,000 in the first year, and Euros 78,500 in the second year. IICD and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) will fund the investments and some operational costs. IICD will give an investment grant of about Euros 139,000, and UCC will provide a grant from its Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF). The project will be self-sustaining from revenue generated from its activities.

Project Owner : Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology (UICT)
P O Box 7187
Plot 7 – 21 Portbell Road
Nakawa – Kampala
UGANDA

Project Contact : IICD