H. E. John Nsambu (State Minister of ICT) Uganda

John Chrysostom Alintuma Nsambu is a member of the Ugandan Parliament. He joined Parliament in 2001 just two months after graduating with his MA in Political Science at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. After five years of Parliamentary work, Nsambu ran again for Parliament and was re-elected in 2006. In June of the same year, Nsambu was nominated by His Excellency the President of Uganda to serve in his cabinet as the State Minister of ICT, which is his current position. Born in 1973, Nsambu is the youngest cabinet member in Uganda's history. Throughout his political carrier, Nsambu has been a strong advocate for the integration of ICT in Education. Through Microsoft employees, individuals and US schools he has enabled over 460 schools with computer labs that include educational software. He believes that school children must have access to computer technology in order for Africa to advance and have a strong hold in the technology-driven global market. The first step will be to teach Ugandan school children how to use the keyboard and hold the mouse, and from there Uganda's ICT aspirations can grow. For this reason, Nsambu has been working hard to introduce appropriate technologies which can adapt to the electrical power problems in Uganda. Through his efforts, solar and battery powered PCs have already reached Ugandan communities and can be used in any part of the country. Currently, Nsambu is spearheading a project code-named 'A laptop for every one initiative'. The project, expected to cost one US billion dollars, started in March and 300,000 members of the Public Service in Uganda are the initial recipients. Laptops, which normally cost $ 1,200, only cost Ugandan citizens $500 payable in four years. Nsambu's passion is to provide access to affordable hardware for every citizen in his country.