"The increased bandwidth will allow us to send digital radiology images from district hospitals to experts in our capital Kigali, and outside the country", Kagame told an E-Health Conference in Italy.
"Given that the overwhelming majority of our population lives in rural areas, this will allow many more patients to easily secure specialist opinion at significantly reduced cost."
Read more: Rwanda: Broadband Expansion Will Widen Health Coverage - Kagame
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.
He said his ministry is currently installing a telecommunications system to help identify and monitor the scale of agriculture production in the country.
The system is to assist in online monitoring of crop production among the Rwandan society and where or how the government can intervene in case of harvest deficit, Murekezi said.
Read more: Rwanda: Agriculture Ministry To Go Online - Murekezi
Dr Gakuba says that major hospitals in all districts in the country will be equipped with better internet connection next year under the e-health scheme.
The US' Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the Global Fund are jointly financing the scheme, he said.
Read more: Rwanda: All District Hospitals to Be Connected in 2008
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…