IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The plan, dubbed "Smart Rwanda Days", is a citizen-centred business-friendly, accessible and sustainable information and service delivery chain, which will be realised through public-private partnership.

To realise Smart Rwanda Days, government, in partnership with the World Bank, yesterday hosted an event to help stakeholders develop a shared vision for the initiative.

In a bid to increase the country's competitiveness and be prepared for the Asean Economic Community in 2015, the Information and Communications Technology Ministry has rolled out the 'Smart Thailand' strategy.

Smart Thailand is part of the national ICT framework called 'ICT2020', a development blueprint for the country that will lead and guide all parts of the economy, especially the government sector, to move forward with ICT development.

Speaking about the role of ICT in the Gauteng Provincial Government's (GPG's) growth path, at the Gauteng ICT summit yesterday, Gauteng CIO Lemmy Chappie said the country must ensure the set-top boxes required for digital TV are manufactured locally.

“It's about time we became the China of Africa. Also, as a country we need to be able to build our own Microsoft-type of applications and this is possible through open source.”

Even though a report states that Nigeria is number 10, in terms of internet users in the world, stating that we have about 44 million users on the internet. We are not yet there. If you put it against our population that is still not up to a third of our population that has access to internet in the country. A country like South Africa and Egypt are ahead of Nigeria. To know we are not yet there: everything I.T items used in the offices are not produced in Nigeria – the computer, printer, telephones, cameras are all imported. The implication is the jobs are being created in China, India, UK and US and not in Nigeria. When Nigeria becomes an ICT-driven nation, we will be able to produce our own telephones, computers. But we are moving there.

''Recent events around the world, in particular in North Africa and the Middle East, have also highlighted the catalytic role that mobile phones and social media can play in galvanizing public opinion against repression. And in the aftermath of natural disasters that have struck with greater frequency and force, we have seen how these technologies are a vital part of the aid response, establishing lines of communication that can save lives, reunite families and help emergency relief reach people in need, Ki-Moon said in a message on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day which falls on 17 May.

Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes Matilda Kalibata, told the conference, which was organised by the Centre for Technical Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) together with her ministry, that ICTs are “low-hanging fruit for poverty reduction.” And CTA Director Michael Hailu described the benefits that are beginning to flow from the increased use of ICTs for agriculture as “one of the great opportunities of our times”.

The Samena region, comprising South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, was the focus of the study by the Samena Council in collaboration with Booz & Company, which concluded that the benefits of this investment would be shared by players within the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors, as well as by governments.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda set the tone at the outset, saying, "Investment and trade -- as opposed to aid and charity -- must drive the transformation of our economies." He called for a dynamic ICT sector to connect Africa to the global information superhighway. "In order to realize this much-needed economic revolution, we have to forge productive relationships between government and business," said Kagam

The Minister of Communications, Roy Padayachie, the Department of Communications and ICT industry leaders have today, 31 July 2011, signed an ICT Industry Competitiveness and Job Creation Compact, that commits to 100% broadband penetration by 2020 and the creation of one million additional jobs throughout the ICT industry.

Decisions will be taken in the nearest future about implementation of a number of projects as part of the Year of Information and Communication Technologies.

The statement came from Minister of Communication and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan Ali Abbasov speaking to journalists on Monday.

In her presentation, Neelie Kroes, the European Digital Agenda Commissioner emphasised that the Digital Single Market, which is emphasised in the Europe2020 strategy, must be inclusive and democratic. The Digital Single Market is an important economic opportunity for Europe to seize ; thus it is vital that Europe remains competitive in the digital area whose scope is much broader than only ICTs. The Commission is in the process of producing an Action Plan that will contain 101 actions in 7 areas, as well as 31 pieces of legislation.

ACCESS Nigeria, supported by the World Bank, will tests youths in Nigeria against a sample of worldwide scores that qualify for global outsourcing jobs. The test thus reflects employability by competitive global standards. Besides testing, the ACCESS program in Nigeria aims to boost the employability of graduates and job seekers in high-potential areas by linking skills training to immediate market needs. ACCESS Nigeria includes a 10-week modular training in communication, cognitive and computer skills. After successful candidates are certified, they are linked to potential employers in the services sector who have endorsed ACCESS.

The Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC), the government body charged with the emirate's ICT agenda, noted several achievements, capacity building initiatives, partnerships and special events over the past months that are expected to have positive impacts on technology-enabled growth in 2013 and beyond.

268 public schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are all set to benefit from high-speed advanced Internet connectivity as the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), in collaboration with Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) announces the completion of an ICT Infrastructure and Technical Support Project.

The Dh330 million project aims to improve the quality of learning outcomes across schools by integrating the latest technology and offering both wire and wireless high-speed Internet connectivity.

The Vice President said Ghana has initiated a number of policies and programmes to meet the achievement of this goal. He outlined the ICT for accelerated development policy, ICT education, strategic document and the establishment of Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence. He said the developing World should brace themselves to challenge the brain drain.

There are those who suggest that the disparate state of the connectivity services market in South Africa is due, in part, to the various business models that exist and the need to make technology work.

“The AU would coordinate with ITU and all development partners to continue activities on harmonising policies and regulations in Africa based on the platform created by Harmonisation of the ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa project,” the statement noted.

Now, to change the world, I am typing on a computer about the challenges that African governments are still facing in applying technology for faster information dissemination, service delivery, and bringing governance closer to the people at the click of a computer mouse.

He said connecting rural communities on the continent to tackle challenges in education, health and governance required a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society.

President Mills made the call in a speech read on his behalf by Communications Minister, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, at the opening session of the Fifth African Regional Conference on Rural Communications in Accra.