The Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) received strong support for its approach at the 10th National Communications Conference (NCC) 2026, held at Makerere University. The conference ran under the theme "Accelerating Market-Driven Research and Innovation for Uganda's Development," and its central question was practical: how do we move homegrown innovations from the prototype stage to products people can actually buy?
Research That Builds an Industrial Economy
Speaking at the event, the Rt. Hon. Justine Kasule Lumumba, Minister of ICT and National Guidance, called on researchers to ground their work in responsible technologies that genuinely move Uganda towards industrialisation. Her message echoes what UIRI set out to do from the start: source appropriate technologies, carry out applied research, and build a competitive industrial sector.
Closing the Quality and Innovation Gap
Two other speakers offered perspectives that directly reflect how UIRI supports its innovators.
Ms. Patricia Ejalu, Deputy Executive Director Standards at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), encouraged innovators to put quality first. That is the thinking behind UIRI's training programmes, which help incubated products meet UNBS standards before they reach the market.
“The standards are made here by us, and so they can be met.”
Ms. Julian Rweju highlighted another opportunity: key government systems, including the National ID database and business registration registries, can now be accessed through APIs. For UIRI-backed innovators, who also gain commercial skills through the Business Development Centre (BDC), this makes it much easier to scale their technology within official government systems.
UIRI continues to lead market-driven research and industrial training, helping Ugandan innovators turn good ideas into products that are standardised, scalable and ready to compete.
Conference highlights
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