The Ugandan Parliament has allowed the government to access a $106 million loan granted by the Export and Import Bank of China to fund the country's national fibre optic transmission backbone project.
"Parliament has now unanimously passed the grant from the Chinese government, allowing the Ugandan government to roll-out a 2 500km national data transmission backbone in the East African country," says Edward Baliddawa, chairman of the newly-formed Parliamentary ICT committee overseeing the fibre optic backbone implementation.
The approval comes amid criticism from Parliamentary legislators, who - according to the Ugandan New Vision - accused government of signing a memorandum of understanding with Chinese technology provider Huawei to roll-out a national data backbone, before Parliament had approved the loan.
Huawei had reportedly begun work on the project before legislators had approved the loan.
Baliddawa confirms, however, that the loan request was "unanimously" agreed in the Ugandan Parliament last week.
He says the unanimous passing of the loan request shows there is no divergent view as to whether Uganda needs the backbone.
However, he notes the Parliamentary ICT committee expressed concern about the management of the backbone.
The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology has since said a body called NITA-U (National Information Technology Authority Uganda) will manage the project.
It is believed that an independent special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be more suitable for this project, in order to demonstrate a public-private partnership spirit. An SPV could lease out and manage the lines in the backbone to interested parties on behalf of the government, Baliddawa explains.
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