Digital Skills and Human Capital

Human capital is a critical ingredient and key success factor for doing business in Uganda’s digital economy.

Human capital is a critical ingredient and key success factor for doing business in Uganda’s digital economy. Uganda is ranked among the top 10 African countries for software developers, with an estimated 11,000 developers. However, there is a shortage of supply of intermediate and advanced (e.g., advanced diploma in Information technology, undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in IT) skills, a situation which constrains “skills-intensive” growth and competitive strategies for small struggling businesses. Several training institutions exist in Uganda to help create and maintain vital technical skills for the digital economy. The Makerere University’s College of Computing and Information Science produces an average of 1000 graduates in digital skill courses per academic year and an average of 2,500 short course graduates. Short course (web design, software programming, etc) trainees, by the Centre for Innovation & Professional Skills Development (CiPSD) are about 8,000 per annum over the last decade. The Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology (UICT) has trained 6,965 diploma and certificate holders over the last decade. Despite heavy investment in training, the estimated number of intermediate-to-advanced (e.g., advanced diploma and degree in IT) IT skills is approximately 35,000 while the estimated stock of (short course) basic to intermediate IT skills is about 150,000. There are two certified IT training companies by the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U), while informal training organizations number in the thousands.