Former State Minister of Information Communication and Technology, Nyombi Thembo has been appointed UCC’s Director Rural Communication Development Agency.
Until early this year, Nyombi was a supervisor for Uganda Communication Commission (UCC). He was subsequently dropped as a State Minister for ICT after losing the Kasanda South Constituency to former police Spokesperson for Kampala Extra, Simeo Nsubaga.
He vigorously campaigned for President Yoweri Museveni and after elections, he applied for UCC job as the director for RCDA, a job he has been appointed to.
The Rural Communications development Fund (RCDF) is a Universal Service Fund (USF) to communications in Uganda. It was established in 2003 and it is administered at arms’ length by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
About RCDA
The projects implemented by RCDF include; Internet points of presence (POP) – 76, Internet cafes – 106, ICT training centres – 78, Public payphones – 4,099, District web portals – 78, multipurpose community Tele-centres (MCT) – 13, Postal projects – 45, School ICT laboratories – 708, Health ICT facilities – 174, Voice network sites – 90, Content development projects – 106, Local governance projects 2, and Other unique projects – 31.
The direct impact realised out of the projects implemented includes; 100 per cent voice coverage at the sub county level, 100 per cent data coverage for every district town of Uganda, teaching of Computer Studies as a subject in at least 50 per cent of government secondary schools and basic ICT equipment in all district government hospitals.
Between 2003 and 2009, the focus of RCDF projects was on ensuring access to ICT services for the underserved areas. Subsequently, the RCDF project focus shifted to ensuring usage of ICT services
RCDF was started in the year 2003. The activities of RCDF are guided by the RCDF policy of 2001 which was rolled over for the five year period 2003 to 2007.
