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 official plan is that from the end of the year it will no longer be possible to do the process manually. The same goes for such other processes as applying for birth certificates, ID cards, passports and building permits.
This is “a transformation project”, according to Didier Nkurikiyimfura, director-general in charge of information and communications technology at the ministry of youth and ICT. The scheme is emblematic of the Rwandan authorities’ vision of an ICT-enabled economy. E-government, e-health, smart agriculture — these are all part of the official credo — and “you can do it online” has become the Rwandan bureaucratic catchphrase.
It is easier to imagine success of the plan in modern Kigali than in rural communities. In such areas, people carry produce to market on their heads and few have electricity to charge an electronic device.
An important plank of official strategy, namely attracting big IT companies, is rather lacking. Similarly, the objective of getting internet access into schools depends on Rwanda expanding electricity access. One step forward is a Brazilian-Argentine venture, Positivo BGH, which is assembling laptops for schools.
The government is intent on pushing ahead with setting up internet service points in Rwanda’s 2,148 “cells” — the country’s smallest administrative units — with the online network eventually covering all government-to-citizen and government-to-business services.
For private operators that have invested in communications infrastructure, the scheme is a signal of the authorities’ commitment to technology. Rwanda has 4,500km of fibre optic cable and has wide 3G mobile coverage; 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is available in Kigali, with plans to extend it across the country.
The government laid the “backbone” fibre network, rather than relying on operators to do it. “It would have taken 20 years,” says Steve Mutabazi, a government strategy adviser. It spent $130m on laying the fibre, expecting mobile companies to provide the “last mile” of wireless broadband connections. “We reckoned they would jump at it,” says Mr Mutabazi. They didn’t.”
Instead, the government opted to provide wholesale services to operators and internet service providers, through a joint venture, Olleh Rwanda Networks, formed two years ago with Korea Telecom. Mr Mutabazi, who chairs Olleh, expects to keep within its $140m budget, with a nationwide network due for completion in early 2017.
A separate fibre network is operated by Liquid Telecom, an affiliate of the southern Africa-based Econet, which took over the landline assets of the state company Rwandatel. Sam Nkusi, chairman of Liquid Telecom Rwanda, says bulk broadband rates have come down sharply and are competitive.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): David White
Quelle/Source: Financial Times,
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