Kampala — Ugandan rural women are counting their blessings for turning digital.

Modern communication has improved their skills, and has enabled quick access to capital for small businesses.

Ann Kayomberera, a businesswoman in Maganjo, 30 minutes drive north of Kampala, recounts how internet and a mobile phone is raising her to new heights. "I'm now a major supplier of chicken, eggs and milk in my locality," she boasts.

A mixed farmer, Kayomberera has become an ardent bookkeeper, and surfs the internet easily. "I contacted the US-based International Women Tribute Center, and my intention was financial help," she recalls, but shrugs off her failure to get funding, noting: "I got useful information from their web site, which has pushed me forward."

She is a textbook success of the Council for Economic Empowerment of Women of Africa (CEEWA), an NGO that helps women to improve their skills through the use of internet.

"Kayomberera gave us information she obtained via internet, which we translated into local language and availed to other rural women," says Angela Nakafeero, CEEWA co-ordinator in Uganda.

Kayomberera said four out of ten women who benefited from Kayomberera's information have improved their production, through the use of mobile phone and internet technologies in their activities.

The internet has helped women market their products. Through CEEWA, 15 women entrepreneurs secured an order of 20,000 tablemats from the National Association of Women Organisations in Uganda (NAWOU).

"Mobile phones have helped them to reach out to their customers and do market research for their products," says Angela.

Ugandan government wants internet to be an integral part of the rural community and is establishing telecentres through a US$ 3 million information technology (IT) strategy.

Four have been established, equipped with a telephone, several computers, one of which is connected to the internet, and a television set among other communication facilities.

Ultimately, the government targets at least a telecentre in each of the 56 districts in the country, to benefit local authorities, schools, hospitals, and agricultural and business associations in rural areas.

Rural inhabitants will not only be consumers of information on the net, but will use the facility to propagate their home-grown experiences in development.

"Documentation, evaluation and monitoring of women activity all over Uganda will be easy so that women do not have to tour districts, but [browse] the net," Patricia Litho, an officer at the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology.

A major challenge is to avail affordable telecommunication services to rural inhabitants. The cost of internet has been declining. Two years ago, it cost UShs 3000 (about US$ 1.5) to browse for an hour. Now it costs half that amount. Yet for majority of Ugandans surviving on a dollar a day, it is still high.