Rwanda Leading Africa in ICT Revolution
By Erin Cunningham
PARIS,
Jul 4, 2007 (IPS) - Less than fifteen years after the genocide that
destroyed much of Rwanda's human capital, infrastructure, and
socio-economic fabric, the country is set to become sub-Saharan Africa's
hub for information and communications technology (ICT).
Thanks
to ambitious government initiatives in developing Rwanda's
telecommunications infrastructure, the country's ICT sector - including
mobile phone and fibre optic networks as well as PC and Internet access -
has become a primary target of both international public and private
investment in recent years.
Named East Africa's number one ICT nation by the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rwanda has benefited from
ICT-based investments by lucrative international players such as
Microsoft, Nokia, and Terracom.
The country's current ICT sector budget is on par with nations of the
Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping
of 30 rich nations, at 1.6 percent, far above the African average.
Faced with a shattered economy in 1994, Rwanda launched its "Vision
2020" strategy in 2000 in order to vigorously rebuild and reinvent the
Rwandan economy, aiming to achieve middle-income economic status by the
year 2020.
"One of the hard pieces of work lies in maintaining both the investment
and especially the policy focus to get maximum benefit. President Paul
Kagame's government has done that very well, encouraging both smart ICT
policies and in general supporting a more business-friendly
environment," Andrew Mack, former World Bank employee and regular
contributor to East Africa Business Week, told IPS.
While the Vision 2020 framework addressed agricultural, industrial, and
social elements as well, Rwanda's lack of port access, inflated
airfreight rates, and surrounding instability provoked the Rwandan
government to invest in a knowledge-based economy with ICT as its
cornerstone.
Launching programmes in scientific research and education, technological
innovation, and telecommunications distribution, Vision 2020 aimed to
produce "highly-skilled scientists and technicians to satisfy the needs
of the national economy" that would be integrated into the larger
framework of economic and social development for the greater Rwandan
population.
Donor governments are getting on the ICT bandwagon as well. Just last
month, the British Department for International Development (DFID)
announced it would launch a 700,000 pound sterling (1.4 million dollar)
project in conjunction with the Rwandan government and World Bank to
"explore innovation in science and technology and economic growth" in
the country.
The Rwanda Development Gateway, a government-run portal for Rwanda's
development sector, sees ICT as "a window of opportunity to leap-frog
the industrialisation stage and transform the economy into information
and knowledge-based economies" in order to effectively combat
development challenges in the country while ushering in new economic and
social opportunities.
Twenty-five recently demobilised soldiers, for example, were awarded
one-year hardware maintenance and software development certificates in
2006 by the Washington DC-based Development Gateway Foundation.
"The aim of the training was to help demobilised soldiers get jobs as
technical consultants in ICT. Some have started partnering with computer
hardware and maintenance companies," Jerome Gasana, project manager of
the Regional ICT Training Centre (RITC) in Kigali told IPS.
The approach has apparently worked. The Economist magazine recently
reported that Rwanda is well on its way to achieving its Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) as a result of its ICT-based poverty reduction
strategies.
Ensuring access by all citizens has been a mainstay of Rwanda's ICT
policy, although there is still a substantial rural-urban gap, with the
majority of mobile phone, landline and internet access concentrated in
Rwanda's capital Kigali and surrounding areas.
One billion dollars was committed in 2006, however, to building
nationwide tele-centres with Internet and telephone access points,
allowing for increased connectivity and mobility in rural areas.
A related "village phone" endeavour undertaken by Nokia and the Grameen
Foundation USA in 2006 sought to bring affordable mobile communications
access to rural villages in Rwanda, as well as the creation of over
3,000 related small businesses throughout the country in the next three
years.
"The number of village phones (as of July) deployed amount to 167. The
target is to reach 1,000 by the end of 2007," Nokia's Middle East and
Africa Director of Communications, Yolanda Pineda, told IPS.
Rwanda also boasts an Internet Exchange Point, ICT Park, National
Computing Centre, and Telemedecine Network, which connects Rwandan
hospitals and universities in an attempt to transform and expand health
services to underserved areas.
The government continues to supply and invest in technology at both the
primary and university school levels, as over 1,200 primary schools are
equipped with computers and at least 10 percent of Rwanda's secondary
schools have wireless Internet.
"The RITC organised secondary school teachers for training in ICT from
all provinces of Rwanda. The course was designed to help them
disseminate ICT skills to the younger generation," Gasana said.
Rwanda formally joined the East African Community (EAC) economic bloc on
Jun. 17 and is expected to play a major role in the development of the
ICT sectors of its neighbours and fellow EAC members.
The country has already begun offering scholarships to ICT students from
East and Central Africa to increase the number of scientists and raise
the level of technological knowledge in the region.
"If they keep on the track they're on and even accelerate, I see no
reason why they won't be able to reach a lot of Rwandans and even make
money helping people around the region who want to develop an ICT
industry," said Mack.
A recent partnership with Microsoft and the Institute of Advanced
Technology of Kenya saw the RITC train 25 trainers as user support
professionals in light of Rwanda's potential role as regional ICT
facilitator.
"The training was designed to foster our staff, as we are targeting the market for the East Africa community," Gasana said.
Rwanda was also chosen as the geographical headquarters of the new East
African Submarine Cable project, a mammoth fibre optic venture designed
to bring telecommunications to rural villages from Sudan to South Africa
along East Africa's coast.
"I hope they will lead by example, but I can also see Kigali developing
into a real regional hub-the Singapore of East Africa," Mack says.
(END)
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