 Welcome to GSR18, the Global Symposium for Regulators, and I'm here in the ITU studio in Geneva, and I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by Godfrey Mutabazi, who is Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission. Godfrey, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Now, I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about subjects that have been coming up here at the symposium. How can we protect personal data and enhance consumer's trust in today's data-driven society? Oh, thank you so much. Data protection and the way it is expanding has caused a lot of problems now. It's a big issue all over the world, and in Uganda in particular, and everybody's concerned about it. But as you know, our regulation is coming in. The whole world is getting concerned, and we are trying to see how we can address this matter. First of all, as we speak now, this is what we call Data Communication Bill, which is in Parliament, so that it can regulate the use, collection, and dissemination of data. It's very, very scary now that, as we speak now, we've got about several agencies, maybe 506, that mentioned a bit of data, how you can control it and how you can use it, collect it, and process it. But now we are coming to compress it into one law so that it can be well controlled. And as a regulator, we are assisting the public so that they know the dangers. It's a big issue through sim card registration, through national identity, passport registration, birth registration, so on and so on. So the government is addressing it through a sort of compressed regulatory authority that is coming there soon. I understand about being worried about the dangers, but what about the positive aspects of this new technology and these new regulatory frontiers? Yes, of course, making no mistake, we are into a forced industrial revolution now, being driven by data. There's huge data, and to plan and execute any program now, you need a lot of data. So it's a positive thing that now everybody is going into data so that it can shape our planning when it comes to manufacturing, when it comes to agriculture, when it comes to education, all those things are driven by data. So it's a very positive thing and we all focus on it and we believe that that's the only way to go. How is the 5G era going to affect Uganda, do you think? Well, we must embrace it now. I've just been in the conference now and everybody is talking about 5G. Well, speaking now, 3G has got to take root in the whole nation. Well, within six months, every site will be 3G and 4G by end of next year, maybe give it about 18 months. And then 5G, we have to get involved with the industry. Inevitably, it will depend on the band and we're going to open up the bands, the spectrum, so that we bring it into reality in Africa because surely we have to go into these sensors we've been talking about if they're going to be deployed and it's going to be a trillion sensors in a few years' time. Maybe 10% of those sensors will be in Africa to create a lot of employment, a lot of excitement, a lot of development. So we are looking into it and we are focusing that within six months we have a position on that. There seems to be a lot more participation of technologists and futurists, etc. in this regulatory frontier. Do you think that that's a good thing? Yes, yes, because you see, amazingly, when we talk about artificial intelligence, if you talk about a machine's machine, if you talk about Internet of Things, yes, this is the only way to go and that's the language. I mean, all these technologies, the way these ones have started, they discuss, they talk, they deploy, but within a few years they've moved on. We are looking at these technology companies that are giving us new ways of doing business, new ways of thinking, new ways of learning. So, yes, a good thing. It's something we are to embrace now and start working on it. It's dynamic, moving very fast and we have to move fast as an industry. Light regulation, heavy regulation or new regulation? No, we cannot afford to be heavy regulation or light regulation. We have to look for compromise to be honest with you and with the new technologies you don't legislate immediately, you take your time, see how it works and then you come and do it. Remember, when mobile money came, we waited, observed before we came up with some regulation. And this is what we are trying to do now, looking at the way things are going. What we don't want is technology companies to take advantage of us, especially in third world countries. We want to be together. We want technology, whereby we don't want a relationship to be at arm's length. If the technology is coming to these developed countries like Europe and America, let them also know that in Africa there is a potential market and we want to work with these technology companies, the scientists, so that we move our country at the same pace. Now, you're no stranger to ITU events. How has this symposium been for you so far? Well, this is different because it's focused on new technologies now. We are no longer talking about coverage, infrastructure sharing, all these traditional items we have already discussed. Now we are talking about 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and that's the way to go into the future. The future is here, everybody can anticipate the future. That's one thing I like about this. Thank you very much for joining us. 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