IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Darla Rudakubana, the ministry’s communications specialist commented that the cost of the entire project amounted to $164,000.

She further explained that the scheme would seek to distribute handsets at sector level and smart phones at district level and this action will lead to better reporting and response from the authorities.

The Rwanda cabinet adopted the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Policy and Plan in 2000.

Moses Bayingana Director Private Sector, Education and Community Programmes said the policy is in line with the government's vision 2020.

The money that was cleared through an International Development Association (IDA) financing grant for the Regional Communication Infrastructure Program - Rwanda Project (RCIPRW), is supposed to increase the availability of broadband to more than 700 Rwandan institutions including schools, health centers and local government administrative centers. IDA is the concessional lending arm of the World Bank.

The Kigali MAN is especially designed to deliver Internet connectivity at lower cost to all the city's districts. The government will initially lay fiber optics before moving to complete the "last-mile" connections to government institutions, the private sector and homes.

The initiative will enable Rwanda to connect to the Internet internally to support services like digital libraries to be accessed by schools in Rwanda, said Nkubito Bakuramutsa, executive director of the Rwanda Information Technology Authority.

The centre of excellence was established early this year to improve the health sector by helping medical practitioners access information regarding the situation of patients, both in urban and in the rural areas using ICT.

Addressing e-Health stakeholders at KIST on Wednesday, Prof Kevin Krane, the Dean of Academic Affairs at Tulane University, called upon practitioners to develop a network of technology across the country.

When complete, a national backbone will enable Rwandans to use e-applications and for the government to execute e-services and business and information exchange that need high speed broadband Internet.

The contract obliges KT to provide technology, equipment and relevant application materials to the government of Rwanda.

The nation’s leaders have not only spoken about it, but also made policies that favour the development of this sector; and they are many. For the example there is the One-laptop-per-child programme; there is the village phone; e-health (tele-medicine), and many others.

The Rwanda project is part of the World Bank's US$ 424m Regional Communication Infrastructure Program, which is designed to improve the regional communications infrastructure and increase the deployment of e-government in Southern and Eastern Africa.

Zoellick said this during a video conference held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia where he was attending African Union Summit.

The video conference was linked to different African cities including Rwanda.

"The Internet is a needed public utility as much as water and electricity," declared President Paul Kagame at the Transform Africa summit, held in Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, last October to discuss the future of broadband in Africa.

On July 11, 2017, Rwanda was ranked among top 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are on progress towards attaining the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 while, on July 13, 2017, the country received the 'Top Ten Tech Solutions Award' for innovation of Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS). As posted on the Ministry of Justice website, this award is typically given to a high-performing court that engages many tools, especially ICT, to operate efficiently and effectively in conducting the business of the judiciary.

When we compare the ICT industry in Rwanda at the pre- Genocide period and today, there is a big difference. I doubt whether the ICT sector had any mention during the pre-1994 government's plans and policies.

The only technology worth talking home about then was the fixed telephone network and the sole public radio station, all of which were only accessible to a tiny privileged minority.

For all its challenges, Rwanda is by nearly all accounts making tremendous strides, working to re-build into a modern, knowledge-based economy. In fact, a number of Rwanda-watchers these days see the country on track to become the hottest IT spot between Cairo and Durban, a kind of “Silicon Valley of East-Central Africa.” But it certainly did not have to be this way…

The biggest ICT for development event in Rwanda wrapped up in June with the entire country geared for a technological boost, as more than 250 delegates from bilateral donors, civil society, the private sector and academia, and over 500 online participants from across the globe met in Kigali to discuss an major overhaul of the country’s ICT capacity to better address Rwanda’s lingering development challenges.

Registering a land transfer in an outlying village in Rwanda requires a number of journeys — to the nearest subdistrict office to get forms to fill in, which then have to be notarised, to a bank to pay the notary’s fees, then back to the government office, probably returning later to check the status of the process.

From mid-year, registration can be done online. For people with no internet-capable device of their own, this could be done at a government centre, or a cyber café, or the place perhaps where they already buy phone airtime and do their mobile banking.

The New Times reports the partners in the initiative, dubbed “YouthConnekt”, include the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising, Tigo, and HeHe Ltd, a mobile solutions company.

Speaking at the launch of the platform, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister for Youth and ICT, said the development was a historic moment in the efforts to expand communication and interactions.

Libraries at telecenters will be equipped with several tablet computers to create an environment for developing digital content and facilitate the access of information.