By Mulengera ReportersOrganized by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), in order to provide a platform for the relevant dialogue between the academia, industry/potential employers and Civil Society Organizations on one hand and the GoU policy makers and implementers on the other, the National Conference on Communications (NCC) has since 2011 been happening annually. And the one of this year will be the 9th edition running from 2nd to 3rd of October.To be simultaneously co-hosted by Gulu & ISBAT Universities in close collaboration with UCC, the Conference is a much-awaited event among ICT stakeholders. The idea is also to bring together all stakeholders to be able to reflect on the progress the sector has been able to make so far as an enabler of Uganda’s economic transformation, and how to mitigate prevalent challenges.The Conference is also a platform for leading academic giants on ICTs to share peer-reviewed high quality research, including aspects recommending the aspects of Uganda’s ICT ecosystem, governance, policy making environment and regulation that merit reform and realignment as the country looks into the future.According to UCC Executive Director Nyombi Thembo, the event is also a platform to congregate hundreds of students and young innovators to be deliberately mentored while directly interacting with the country’s industry leaders, best academics and researchers in the ICT field from the country’s best Universities and institutions of learning.Nyombi Thembo added that the Conference will also discuss ways on how to achieve digital inclusion while sharing the benefits of digital transformation, whose benefits the President wants to reach and benefit all Ugandans without anyone being left behind.At the Friday media event convened at UCC headquarters in Bugolobi to launch and flag off pre-Conference preparatory activities, Nyombi Thembo elaborated that this year 2025’s Conference will prioritize focus areas like promotion of ICT research, knowledge sharing, amplifying innovations leading to practical solutions, policy dialogue and student empowerment.“Scientists involved in ICT-related work must undertake research that generates solutions to problems affecting society and this is one of the many conversations we ought to have at this Conference,” Nyombi Thembo explained during the Friday news conference.There will be plenty of focus and presentation of peer-reviewed research findings. The same Conference will be a platform for students and young innovators to showcase their outputs and publicize themselves among industry leaders and potential employers.Officials also explained that the stakeholder collaboration that will be deepened and enhanced at the Conference, is the type that is required to stimulate innovations as a means to fostering sustainable ICT development for Uganda and beyond.The UCC ED William Nyombi Thembo commended ISBAT and Gulu Universities for being the Commission’s co-organizers and co-hosts for this year’s NCC event. There will be plenty of preparatory work and pre-Conference activities ahead of the main event slated for 2nd & 3rd October.ISBAT and Gulu Universities were congratulated for following into the footsteps of Makerere University, MUST, Ndejje and Kyambogo University which hosted the same NCC during the annual event’s preceding 8 editions.Engineer Christine Mugimba, who serves as the Director for Research & Digital Transformation at UCC, was among those who spoke at the media launching event and she observed that Universities and other institutions of higher learning do a lot of research whose findings can appropriately be shared and disseminated during this annual Communications Conference.She challenged the academia at the participating Universities to use this year’s Conference to demonstrate the extent to which their research output is solution-based. She also bragged about the fact that this year’s organizers’ decision to collaborate and co-host the event with two Universities, as opposed to one as has always been the case, was indicative of the fact that the National Conference on Communications (NCC) was growing both in stature and impact across the country and among Uganda’s students and other stakeholders.She celebrated Gulu University for enabling UCC to decentralize the NCC Conference and related activities to upcountry and other remote areas of Uganda. She also demonstrated to the assembled journalists how the Conference serves as a platform for intersection and fusion of research and industry (basically potential employers and users of the research).The Conference was also flagged as an opportune platform to further narrow the gap between the secondary schools and higher education institutions/Universities on one hand while directly linking the government policy makers and industry on the other.Gulu University’s Head of Computer Science Department Dr. Geoffrey Tabo Olok observed that the Conference was an opportunity for his employer to deepen understanding of how the academia is supposed to impact Uganda’s ICT-related long term development goals as enshrined under the NDP4 and Vision 2040.He also appreciated the opportunity to deepen collaboration between the academia and industry, that is being availed at the Conference. Dr. Olok also construed the Conference as a perfect platform and opportunity to deepen decolonization of ICT training and the development of digital solutions too.That there is a lot of potential at all Uganda’s Universities to develop the relevant and impactful ICT solutions so that the country does not have to depend on imported such digital solutions at all, a fact Dr. Olok is convinced will further be publicized during and after the 2nd-3rd October Communications Conference.He added that time had come to walk away from what he called the “Ivory Tower System” of imparting ICT skills, adding that the National Communications Conference is an opportunity to deepen shared understanding around that same issue.On his part, ISBAT’s Dr. Pradeep Kumar (who is also their Director Academic Affairs) thanked UCC for the opportunity to have them in close collaboration as the country counts down to the October Conference. He observed that where things had reached, no human being can successfully claim or afford being aloof towards ICT, which makes interventions like the NCC even more relevant.He also looked forward to the opportunity to have his students to get directly exposed to linking up with industry leaders and the country’s best ICT brains from the different Universities and thereby enhancing mentoring and future learning. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).