By Frank Kamuntu
National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) top bosses; Executive Director Dr. Hatwib Mugasa & Director eGovernment Services Collin Babirukamu shared thrilling insights about UGHUB during the Fintech breakfast meeting organized by Standard Chartered Uganda.
This meeting was under the theme “Harnessing Digitization of Payments and Collections to Spur Growth of the Financial Services Sector in Uganda.”
The panel discussion revolved around the role NITA Uganda plays in providing a regulatory framework and innovative environment for fintech and Banks to thrive.
They also discussed the regulation of emerging technologies like Blockchain, Cloud Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the transformation role of UGHUB in empowering fintech to access business data.
With the new tech, fintech and banks can freely use the UGHUB to securely open bank accounts through data accessed through UGHUB, which has reduced customer and business verification from two weeks to a few seconds something that has accelerated and promoted financial inclusion in Uganda.
Mr. Collin shared that all fintech can access UGHUB at no charge and this aims at encouraging equal access to information.
At this same meeting, the tech pundits shared on the incentives NITA is extending to innovation hubs and incubation of entrepreneurs especially the youth through the Young Startup Academy Programme under the leadership of the Korean Startup Academy.
The program provides comprehensive incubation facilities to 1,000 young entrepreneurs in different parts of the country, with the aim of finally generating the first unicorn startup in Uganda.
UGHUB Is A Booster To Fintechs & Banks
NITA-U integrated all MDA systems into the UGHUB Systems Integration Platform so as to enable the seamless sharing of data across Government systems in a rational, secure, efficient and sustainable manner. This is aimed at improving service delivery to citizens as well as reporting, planning and decision-making across Government and private entities.
The platform was built over the “WSO2” technology stack and it is entirely hosted within the government of Uganda data centre. The platform is vendor neutral with the capability to integrate any system regardless of the technology it runs on.
The platform provides capabilities to consume services from other entities as well as availing services to be consumed by others. It gives full control to every entity in managing their respective services and controlling accessibility.
The UGHUB platform is fully operational with over 108 Entities and many other entities in the onboarding stage.