Dr. Aminah Zawedde: Meet the new Permanent Secretary of Ministry of ICT and National Guidance

President Museveni on Thursday made several changes among Permanent Secretaries in which he appointed Dr. Aminah Zawedde as the new Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.

“By virtue of the Powers given to the President by Article 174 (2) of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, I hereby, appoint the following as Permanent Secretaries,” Museveni said in a statement.

In the transfers announced on Thursday evening, Dr. Aminah replaced Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, who was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Here is what you need to know about Dr. Aminah Zawedde 

Dr. Aminah Zawedde holds a PhD (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands), an MSc. Computer Science (Makerere University), a PGDip in Educational Technologies (University of Cape Town, South Africa), PGD in Education (IUIU) and a BSc. (Statistics and Economics) (Makerere University, Uganda). She has supervised several PHD and Masters students who have attained commendable awards in ICT.

Her expertise includes; ICT advisory, Business transformation, economy digitalization, research, modelling for decision support, process improvement, system integration and capacity building among others.

Dr. Aminah is a Director on the Board of Directors, National Information Technology Authority Uganda and a Non-Executive Director DFCU Group.

Dr. Aminah is a lecturer and senior researcher in the School of Computing and Informatics Technology, Makerere University. She has experience as an IT consultant on both local and international projects. In addition, she has led research projects on capacity building for sustainable ICT4D.

She was a member of the International System Dynamics Society, and founding member of the System Dynamics Africa Chapter and is currently the Organizing Secretary of this Chapter. She has written and published papers in IT peer reviewed journals, and presented some at international conferences.

During her tenure as Board director and Chairperson of the Digital Transformation Committee NITA-U, owing to her role of guiding policy direction and strategies, numerous achievements have been registered.

The Ugandan Government currently boasts of the largest and most stable optical fiber cable network in the country, the NBI, spanning over 4000 Kilometers and providing internet connectivity to over 1000 Government offices. Uganda’s online space is regulated by the Data Protection and Privacy Act, the Computer Misuse Act and the Electronic Transactions Act. The cost of Internet to government, through a deliberate process, dropped from 1200 US dollars per Mbps per month in 2013 to the current 70 US dollars per Mbps per month.

Various NITA-U e-Government initiatives have been rolled out. These include; the Unified Messaging and Collaboration System, a communications system rolled out in over 75 entities with over 17,000 users, ePay an Electronic Payment Gateway a platform that enables convenient and secure online payments, uConnect an SMS Gateway which provides subsidized SMS services, and eGP a web-based system that supports a complete cycle of public procurement and disposal and a 24-hour Government of Uganda IT Service Desk.

The Government of Uganda also established National Cloud Data Centre and Disaster Recovery sites currently providing centralized hosting to over 160 critical E-Government systems and applications among numerous other achievements.

Dr. Aminah starts her tenure as Permanent Secretary as the Government of Uganda is rolling out UGhub, a systems Integration platform to enable seamless sharing of data in a rational, secure, efficient and sustainable manner a platform she has played a central role in bringing to life.

Away from ICT 

As Non-Executive Director, DFCU Group, DFCU Bank posted a number of achievements including; An Asset base growth of 18% from UGX. 2,958Billion to UGX 3,499 billion, upheld by strong growth in liquid assets and loans and advances and a Deposit base growth of 27% from UGX. 2,039 billion to UGX 2,595 billion, owing to which robust liquidity and healthy capital position, the DFCU Board proposed a dividend pay-out of UGX.37.65 Billion Shillings to shareholders.

Giving back to the Community 

Dr. Aminah belongs to the Rotary Club of Kampala Maisha (2017 to-date) that has the following that has achievements; Adopt a village project in Ntenjeru in Mukono District that is improving health care, maternal and childcare, education and financial literacy in the community.

She is also the Board Chairperson of Mustardseed Junior School - Mustardseed is a charity non-profit school which undertook extensive local research to identify an area where education is most urgently needed in the Wakiso district that surrounds the great city of Kampala.