The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has announced the transfer of 60,247 tablets—mobile computing devices—to the government for managing the upcoming elections and monitoring the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM). This represents roughly half of the 122,026 tablets purchased for the 2024 census as of December 16, 2024.
While handing over the devices to the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance yesterday in Kampala, Dr Chris Mukiza, the UBOS executive director, called for the generation of quality and timely data for decision-making.
“This afternoon, the UBOS is privileged to transfer tablets to the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance and Electoral Commission for utilisation after the census. As we told the public, these tablets were not only for handling the census exercise but will be used by the government agencies in undertaking their work after census,” Dr Mukiza said.
Dr Mukiza also said local governments will take 23,897 tablets and the purpose is to strengthen the PDM Information System (PDMIS) at the community level.
He explained that each parish would get two tablets. There are 10,717 parishes. He also said each sub-county community development officer will get one tablet.
“We have 1,496 (sub-county development officers), town Council CDOs (580), City Division CDOs (25), District and City IT Officers (181) and local government statisticians (181). UBOS is also transferring 350 tablets to Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) for monitoring government programmes. So, in total, we are transferring to the Permanent Secretary ICT 60,247 tablets for use,” he added.
“Elections are coming soon, and we are working towards that. So, the number that is going to the Electoral Commission will be handed directly over to the Electoral Commission for their processing and getting ready for the election process,” she said.
“And then the other part that is for PDM purposes, collecting data for PDM for utilization by parish chiefs, chairpersons of parish SACCOs, as well as community development officers and the statisticians and planners and together with the OWC that are working actively in ensuring that they do monitor the performance of the PDM programme, is going to be very helpful,” she added.
Dr Zawedde also said they had already received complaints from the community leaders about inadequate devices for data capturing.
“We had already got concerns from people at the parish level, the chiefs, that they don’t have enough devices to do this data collection, to do registration of beneficiaries for PDM. But now that we have these devices, this is going to make our life and job easy because we shall be collecting data real-time, processing it in real-time and being able to make informed decisions in real-time,” she added.
Asked about the previous reports that some tablets (800) and power banks (11,000) went missing or were not returned after the 2024 census, Dr Mukiza told journalists that he was not going to answer any questions.
Dr Mukiza also said they asked them to pay to the Uganda Revenue Authority account Shs80,000 for a power bank and Shs750,000 for a tablet.
Preparing for 2026 elections
The Electoral Commission will receive 36,000 tablets which are rugged (designed to withstand harsh conditions and rigorous use). The EC requires 48,000 tablets and they have managed to get 36,000 so the rest they will procure.