But the high cost of the internet, digital illiteracy and low availability of friendly gadgets is limiting the access and use of digital innovations, which put an even greater risk that the rural and the poor will remain behind.
With technology now driving the agenda, there are fears that some sections
of the economy, will remain behind, as Uganda strives to meet the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals-SDGs.
The UN Agenda is mainly aimed at ensuring equality in
communities when the SDGs are attained, especially Goal one, on poverty eradication. However, achieving some of these goals will highly depend on
how well Ugandans are able to embrace the use of digital developments,
especially mobile phone-based innovations.
But the high cost of the internet, digital illiteracy and low availability of friendly gadgets is limiting the access and use of digital innovations,
which put an even greater risk that the rural and the poor will remain behind.
The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has now launched a strategy
'Leaving no one behind in the digital era', which they say was based
on over a decade of experience in promoting digital finance in
Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The UN agency admits that the growing presence of
mobile phones has led many people to use them as their primary means to access
a wide range of services.
Richard Ndahiro, the UNCDF Uganda’s Inclusive
Digital Economy Expert, says that still, common barriers such as cost, literacy
and availability have prevented users from progressing beyond basic services
such as calling and messaging. Even common apps like mobile money, are largely not used beyond
sending and receiving cash.
He says that it is important that development partners
work with local innovators to build the capacity in the industry to reach out
to those at risk.
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In Uganda, digital innovators have taken
advantage of the availability and falling cost of mobile phones, and cost of
maintenance through competition, to enhance their innovation capability. However, they agree with the UN that digital
advancement is expanding the divide between the rural poor and the urban
reach, since it influences the speed and adequacy of service delivery.
Gilbert Buregyeya, the Programs and Partnerships
Manager at Startup Uganda, an association of key players in the Ugandans
startups industry, says the main challenge in the market is
the fact that most Ugandans cannot afford to use the phone beyond calling and
receiving calls or messages, due to illiteracy, and the costs.
Recently, they have started challenges where
innovators compete for prizes by fronting ideas that target the rural, poor to
disadvantaged communities, and in this way they are able to get the best solutions
tailored to those needs.
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Buregyeya says the COVID-19 pandemic affected
smallholder entrepreneurs more than the larger ones because the MSMEs turned
to their capital for consumption. He says that this has prompted the innovators into a different approach towards the MSMEs, to respond to their new challenges.
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UNCDF’s Ndahiro says that currently there is an
an ongoing challenge that is aimed at ensuring the effects of COVID-19 on the
rural areas are mitigated so that the pace of inclusiveness for these
communities are maintained or enhanced. The three winners of the challenge are offered up to USD 30,000 (106 million Shillings), on top of training them on how to improve on their
startups.
Ndahiro says that even those that do not win the
final prizes are followed up and their projects are given incubation support.
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Previous efforts have been with the refugee
communities to help them grow or manage their finances they get from donors
and other sources, while others have targeted sectors like rural agriculture. Ndahiro says that these have actually had an
impact on both the target communities and the innovators themselves.
