Ambrose Ruyooka is Acting Commissioner, Information Technology and Head of Research and Development at Uganda’s Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, where he also heads the Secretariat of the National AI Taskforce. He is, among other assignments, Project Manager of UJ-Connect, the Uganda ICT Industry Promotion Project supported by the Government of Japan through JICA. He is Uganda’s focal point to UNESCO’s Global Network of AI Supervisory Authorities and to the Secretariat of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, represents Uganda on ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 on artificial intelligence standards, and leads Uganda’s engagement with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and the OECD.
He brings some thirty years of experience in ICT policy, digital transformation and programme management in Uganda and internationally, including technical leadership of a USD 100 million education sector programme. He participated in drafting Uganda’s Electronic Transactions Act and Electronic Signatures Act, enacted in 2011, adapting the UNCITRAL Model Laws through the East African Community Legal Framework for Cyberlaws — the statutory basis for electronic contracting and digital signatures in Uganda’s financial sector.
His MBA in Financial and Computers Management culminated in a dissertation on the effect of ICT facilitation on the performance of microfinance institutions, and he recently served as a judge at the Bank of Uganda 60th Anniversary Hackathon. He holds postgraduate qualifications in Computer Science, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Gender and Local Economic Development. He is a past President of the ISACA Kampala Chapter (2011–2013), the professional community from which much of Uganda’s information security and IT risk governance leadership is drawn, and is certified as PMP, CGEIT, CRISC, ITIL, COBIT and ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer.
