Kampala — Information Officers in government ministries and autonomous agencies have been asked to integrate the new communication platforms being developed by ICT companies.
Speaking during a special training stint for the public relation officers from government institutions the Minister of Information and National Guidance Rose Namayanja said many information officers have not utilized the existing free communication platforms like Facebook, twitter to communicate to the general public
“Social media platforms should be embraced by all public relation officers in the government ministries and autonomous government agencies. This will help popularize government programmes and also to get feedback from the communities on the quality of services delivery. The current mode of communicating through newspaper is not reaching the younger generation who are busy on the Internet socializing using the various platforms like Facebook, twitter among other platforms” she said
She said communication officers can share information at higher speed instead of using print and electronic media which are relatively expensive.
Namayanja said if the general public gets access to information this will empower them to monitor government programmes and also get access to both social and economic services which the government is offering through various agencies and ministries
“Some of the government agencies offer free government services to Ugandans. But a great number of the citizens are not aware, because they can’t access newspapers. However with the current ICT regime such information can be downloaded on smart phones, making it easy for the youth to access such services from the government,” she said.
The objective of the training was to raise awareness about how ICT can help disseminate government information and promote government activities. It also explored how government information leaders can contribute towards the transformation of Uganda as laid down in Vision 2025.
The Training was organized by Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU) together with the information ministry in partnership with the United Nations University.
The training covered issues like Government Information sharing, Government Information security, Knowledge Based society among other ICT related issues
UTAMU University vice chancellor Professor Venansius Baryamureba said although the country’s ICT sector has developed, many government officials like the information officers have not exploited the advantage associated with ICT.
“We shall continue empowering our communication officers both in government and private sector with latest ICT communication skills which will solve all the bottlenecks which the Public Relation Officers have been experiencing when using ICT to communicate to the public,” he said.
“Exploiting social media is good, but the challenge is that some information officers are poorly facilitated. Some of their computers are not connected on the Internet; this becomes challenging. Government should strive to see that the infrastructure are in place this will make work easier for the information officers” Frank Baine, the Assistant Commissioner of Prisons and spokesperson told East African Business Week.
