Two days ago, Spotify released a statement that it would be launching in several new 80+ markets including in Uganda, with a launch scheduled for the next few days after the announcement was made.

Today, the Company has finally become available in Uganda, releasing with it pricing options for its premium available products.

Several users in Uganda have taken to social media to express their excitement about the launch with some saying they would be quitting Apple Music.

Spotify has also provided two subdomains “spotify.com/ug-en” for English and “spotify.com/ug-sw” for Kiswahili speakers in Uganda, all dedicated to the Ugandan audience.

In a blog post on the company newsroom website, the “world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service”, Spotify announced that it will be expanding its “international footprint” and bring its sound to 80+ new markets in the next coming days, including in Uganda.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to building a truly borderless audio ecosystem … Spotify is embarking on a sweeping expansion that will introduce the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service available to more than a billion people” reads the statement in part.

According to the statement, the 80+ countries being added to the count represent a billion people in the new markets, and with it will be 36 additional languages added to the platform in order to accommodate the new multilingual countries.

These new countries are from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. The full list includes;

Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Spotify will launch with free and premium plans allowing for family, duo and student plans offering a music catalog and podcasts to its new users. For the creators, the company promises to work with local creators and partners in order to expand their reach to global audiences with a “Spotify experience that meets the unique needs of each market”.

Previously and currently, any access to the platform in those countries has only been possible with VPN (Virtual Private Networks) that have widely been used in Uganda to access social media platforms that have continuously faced government shutdowns.

The National Medical Stores (NMS) has called upon all government health facilities to submit their medicine requests within the set deadlines according to the Store’s delivery schedule to enhance availability of medicines in the country.  

“Currently, we serve over 3,000 health facilities across the country and while a great number of them submit their requests on time, we still face challenges in some places where requests are submitted outside the set submission deadlines and this therefore affects availability of medicines in these particular places,” said NMS Public Relations Officer, James Odong.

“We therefore call upon all health facilities to help us help them by adhering to the delivery schedule guidelines available in the health facilities and the NMS website to enhance transparency and medicine availability,” he added.

Odong appreciated Government for the continued support in enabling the store execute its mandate and urged all Government health facility leaders to submit timely requests for deliveries to avoid inconveniences.

“The Government has been very supportive in ensuring we have a conducive environment for logistics and supply which enables us operate efficiently,” he said.

Odong further noted that the deliveries are made as part of the Store’s predetermined bi-monthly delivery schedule but considerations are made for emergency requests.

“NMS delivers drugs to various government health facilities across the country based on a pre-determined schedule every two months which translates into six times every year. Of course there are emergency deliveries but that does not happen regularly,” he emphasised.

“The purpose of these scheduled deliveries is to enable us manage the available resources efficiently and for accountability purposes especially now considering the COVID 19 pandemic and related effects on transport restrictions and availability of medicines globally,” Odong said.

The NMS delivered drugs, vaccines, soaps and fluids between 1st to 9th February 2021 to Omoro District, Otuke District, Lamwo District, Kitgum District, Oyam District, Lira District, Kwania District, Kole District, Dokolo District, Apac District, Alebtong District, Agago District, Kapelebyong District, Arua Regional Hospital,  Mulago National Burns Unit, Lira Hospital, Gulu Hospital, Kitagata Hospital, Katakwi District/Katakwi General Hospital, Moroto Hospital, Naguru Hospital, Mbarara University Hospital and Kabale Regional Hospital.

Other areas which received drugs during this aforementioned period are Soroti Regional Hospital, Mbale Regional Hospital, Jinja Regional Hospital, Ntlp, Kibuku District, Karenga District, Bukiwe District, Abim District/Abim Hospital, Mulago Hospital, Kayunga District, Bugweri District, Kotido District, Kampala National Burns Unit, Kaabong District/Hospital, Kamuli District, Moroto District, Napak District, Katakwi District/Katakwi General Hospital, Moroto Regional Hospital, Kayunga Hospital, Abim Hospital, Nakapiripit District, Nabilatuk District, Manafwa District.

NMS’ mandate is to procure, warehouse and distribute essential medicines and medical supplies, primarily to Government health facilities.

Medicine availability across the country currently stands at 85percent with a target of reaching 90 percent within the next 1-2 years.

NMS recently hired clerks to follow up on drugs from the districts up to the rural health facilities under what is known as the last mile delivery model. 

The institution is set to open a state-of-the art pharmaceuticals warehouse in Kajjansi off Entebbe road to increase bulk store capacity area from the current 8,000 pallet locations in the existing premises, to a minimum of 30,000 pallet locations.

The facility will also increase cold chain capacity to a maximum net storage volume of 2,500m3 purpose built as a Drive-in cold room (DICR). 

“One of our main objectives is to consolidate, centralize and operate NMS services and infrastructure in one modern, purpose built and efficient building, with a minimum sixty-year lifespan, on the specified site,” said NMS General Manager Moses Kamabare.

In the year 2017/2018, NMS achieved higher than target score of 90 percent stock availability for Essential Medicines and 86percent for Tracer items against a target of 75 percent set by Ministry of Health. 

This media house understands that in the financial year 2018/19, NMS attained 92 percent stock availability for 41 Tracer Medicines at Central level against a target of 80 percent from Ministry of Health. Hi

In 2020, a watchdog, the Unwanted Witness released a report wherein it made allegations that Safe Boda, a ride hailing app, was conducting practices that breached Uganda’s data protection laws, principally, the “Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 (DPPA)”.

Following the release of the report, a concerned citizen Obedgiu Sammy appealed to the speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kagada, petitioning that the Company should be investigated and penalised for sharing user’s personal data without their consent. The speaker then directed Uganda’s National Information Technology Authority (NITA) Uganda to conduct the said investigation and report back to it in due time for action.

A report from that investigation was released at the end of January last month and the findings have been made available online. While the Authority did not find evidence to fault the company for selling any user data, it found that Safe Boda specifically breached section 35 of the DPPA when it;

“…unlawfully obtain(ed), disclose(d) or procure(d) the disclosure to another person of personal data held and processed by a data collector, data controller or data processor”.

The basis for the above guilt was premised on the findings that the consents that the Company claimed to have acquired when the users registered for the Safe Boda application, were not sufficient enough to enable the end user make an informed consent as “the ‘consents’ relied upon for the disclosure were not specific because they did not disclose the parties with whom the information was going to be shared with”.

One of the third parties that the information was shared with was CleverTap to which the company claims it shared data with for “behavioural analysis” purposes.

“NITA’s finding is that Safe Boda’s disclosure of its users’ personal data to CleverTap contravened the Data Protection and Privacy Act”, reads part of the findings. The report however goes on to note that there was no evidence to support allegations that the company sells its users’ personal data.

While the Company was found to be in breach, NITA (U) did not recommend any prosecution or penal action to be taken against the spirit of the DPPA, that would have found the company liable and penalised it.

Under the above section, it is stated that any person that breaches the above provision “commits an offence” and when convicted, a fine not exceeding two hundred and forty currency points shall be payable or imprisonment for 10 years or both, the fine and imprisonment.
The breach has been found, but the company has been let off.

Following recommendations in the report, Safe Boda has released an updated set of terms and conditions that have since gone viral on social media, as the company excludes itself from any form of liability arising from the use of its platform. It has also highlighted the names of third parties with whom user personal data is shared.

The actions to be taken by Parliament are yet to be ascertained given that the speaker requested that the findings be furnished to her.