General
CIT builds capacity for African Anglophone Satellite Operators
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) held a workshop on ‘Satellite Communications’ for all African English speaking countries from 18th-22nd October 2010 at the Faculty of Computing and IT (CIT).
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) held a workshop on ‘Satellite Communications’ for all African English speaking countries from 18th-22nd October 2010 at the Faculty of Computing and IT (CIT).
The workshop was held under the ITU supported Center of Excellence (CoE) at Makerere University.
The workshop was aimed at helping VSAT operators, Telecom technicians and engineers come up to speed with the most technical concepts and practices. This is part of a recent capacity building partnership entered between the ITU and International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (ITSO) for the delivery of satellite communication training, under the auspices of the Centers of Excellence network for Africa.
The workshop covered a wide range of issues relating to satellite communications and regulatory issues, including the role of the regional and internal satellite communications organizations. The workshop addressed topics on: Satellite systems design and technology; Earth stations technology; Transmission and network planning; Link budget analysis and design; VSAT installation and maintenance; Audit of VSAT maintenance; regulatory factors: licensing, orbital slot registration and ownership, frequency registration, intersystem coordination; and Earth station and VSAT registration –best practices, WiMAX and other terrestrial interface issues.
Andreas Spoormaker, Director Customer Solutions Engineering-Intelsat Africa and an ITSO expert with 
extensive experience in satellite communications together with Eric Niameogo a VSAT expert, facilitated the training and took participants through sessions Satellite Network Dimensioning and Interference Initiatives.
Speaking about the 5-day training, Dr. Idris Rai, who is the ITU Center of Excellence Manager at Makerere University, noted the significant skills gained by the participants who attended the training from as far as Ghana, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and South Africa in addition to a host of participants from all local telecom operators. In particular, he stressed the importance and relevance of the ITU CoE in building capacity in telecom related disciplines in conjunction with ITU. For the first phase of three years, ITU supports the Center of Excellence in terms of identifying and funding experts in various Telecommunications disciplines.
There are six ITU CoE in Africa that were established last year through a very competitive bidding process. Two centers are located in West Africa, one in Central Africa, two in Eastern Africa, and one is a virtual CoE that delivers training through distance learning platforms. Other workshops that have been conducted at Makerere’s CoE include Customer Service Management, and the next workshop due to take place early next year, will be announced shortly.
Downloads
Training schedule MS Word version, PDF version
Andreas Spoormaker: Satellite Network Dimensioning presentation
Andreas Spoormaker: Interference Initiatives presentation
mwamai@admin.mak.ac.ug, Public Relations Office
Makerere University has received 700 digital tablets from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), aimed at enhancing statistical research, teaching, and data-driven decision-making across the institution.
The donation was made on June 30, 2025, as part of UBOS’ broader initiative to distribute a total of 3,025 tablets to ten government-funded institutions of higher learning. The handover ceremony was attended by Makerere’s Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi and Mr. Simon Kizito, the Deputy University Secretary among other Vice Chancellors and accounting officers.
Dr. Allen Kabagenyi, a UBOS Board Director, who coordinated the distribution of the tablets to the respective 10 Public universities, underscored the significance of inter-institutional collaboration in fostering a data-literate and innovative generation. “This initiative is a testament to the power of partnerships between public institutions. In a country like Uganda, with one of the youngest populations globally, equipping our future leaders with the right tools is critical to achieving both national and global development goals,” she remarked.
The tablets had initially been procured and deployed during the recently concluded National Population and Housing Census. UBOS Executive Director Dr. Chris Mukiza explained that their redistribution marks the beginning of the Bureau’s post-census utilization strategy.
“We acquired 120,000 tablets to conduct the census, and as we committed earlier, we are ensuring that these resources continue to serve the country even after the census,” said Dr. Mukiza. “Our expectation is that these tablets will strengthen data collection, teaching, and research in universities and higher institutions. We want to see a culture where statistics are not only produced but also actively used to influence development outcomes.”
Dr. Mukiza encouraged academic institutions to take full advantage of the extensive data available at UBOS, emphasizing that greater use of statistical resources will translate into more impactful research and policy interventions.
During the same event – cultural institutions also received tablets.
With this donation, Makerere University is well-positioned to further empower students and researchers in statistical analysis, evidence-based planning, and innovation-driven teaching.
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