By Mulengera Reporters
For the last 8 years, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has been organizing the National Conference on Communications (NCC). This is the national forum put in place to enable the academia, policy makers, innovators, researchers, private sector players and other stakeholders from all over Uganda, to come together to reflect on the progress being made and to also chat some way forward on how to confront challenges-and do even better.
Because it’s an annual event, the same NCC is back again for this year 2025. And this time round, UCC is partnering with Lugogo-based ISBAT University and Gulu University to co-host and make the two-day event memorable. The 9th edition of the National Conference on Communications (NCC) will run under the theme: “Harnessing Digital Innovation to Power Sustainable Local Solutions for Uganda’s Development Goals.”
At the events to be simultaneously hosted at UCC, ISBAT and Gulu University campuses, Conference participants will among other things reflect upon and explore the intersection of digital transformation, which Uganda is rapidly undergoing, and national development.
The UCC Executive Director Nyombi Thembo explained that the NCC, which was first held in 2011, is the Commission’s flagship forum that is annually dedicated to “promoting innovation, research and skills development in the ICT sector.”
Besides fostering collaboration between the academia, industry leaders and government, the NCC forum is also used as a platform to present/receive peer-reviewed research findings that are relevant to the ICT ecosystem and to also showcase homegrown innovations.
The organizers are promising to use the 2nd to 3rd October Conference to ensure presentation of high-quality academic papers, students’ conversations and policy conversations. They are also promising capacity-building opportunities including participants getting exposed to hackathons and publishing masterclasses. The 2025 NCC will also be a platform for establishing academic paper-writing clubs across many training institutions in Uganda.
Demonstrating clear growth, growing awareness and belief in the NCC, this year’s Conference will have students from 200 secondary schools participating, compared to last year when 120 such schools participated.
Students from the 200 participating schools will, during the two-day conference, participate in regional and national level innovation competitions aimed at showcasing and publicising digital solutions designed to address real world challenges confronting Ugandan communities.
The conference will also amplify and enrich the ongoing comprehensive review process which UCC is currently undertaking to assess the impact which the NCC has had on Uganda’s ICT innovations landscape, academic research output and policy development too.
The findings and insights generated from the review will inform organizers on what must change or be improved upon when organizing future editions of the National Conference on Communications.
Re-iterating the fact that digital innovation will always be at the heart of Uganda’s sustainable development journey, the UCC boss used the Friday news conference, that was convened to notify the country about the upcoming NCC, to implore all stakeholders (including the academia, innovators, development partners, policy makers and media) to turn up and participate in the 2nd-3rd October Conference in large numbers. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
