Smart Kigali to boost ICT for better service delivery

The government of Rwanda has launched 'Smart Kigali' project to enable people access to free internet via Wi- Fi enabled service shttp://www.kigalicity.gov.rw/spip.php?article1179

The Minister of Youth and ICT Nsengimana j. Philbert (in the middle) testing his device for wi-fi connection at KCT File photo : Kigali City Official  website

The Rwanda’s Minister in charge of Information Technology, Jean Philibert Nsengimana, said he wanted to see the plan “accelerate growth of the Internet sector” and attract more investors.

On launching the “Smart Kigali” project, the Rwanda in partnership with the City of Kigali (the country’s capital), internet service providers, Rwanda Hotel and Restaurants Association as well as other government agencies announced  that there will be free wireless internet in Kigali.

The project, which is line with Rwanda’s Vision 2020, symbolises another step towards achieving the East African nation’s prospects of becoming a regional IT hub, as it steadily moves past the tragic events of the 1994 genocide into a future built on a Knowledge-based economy in order to attract more foreign investment.

Five years ago, Rwanda launched the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative in schools across the country. So far, the project has seen about 200,000 laptops distributed to more than 400 schools.

Going further, Rwandan government signed a $140 million deal with South Korea’s largest Telecom – Korea Telecom (KT) Corp in June, 2013 to provide 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) Broadband networks across the country especially in areas where internet connectivity is low. The deal is considered to be one of the biggest FDI deal ever embarked on by the East African nation.

This was the first step in a strategy which aims to provide wi-fi coverage to all schools and public buildings and buses, hospitals, commercial buildings, taxi-parks and restaurants.

Rwanda hopes that the initiative – a public-private partnership – will significantly contribute towards delivering better services to people via the internet.

   According to the United Nations Broadband Commission for Digital Development 2013, only 8 percent of Rwandans are have access to the internet.

  Rwanda ranks as one of the least corrupt countries in Africa, while on the World Bank’s ease of Doing Business Index for 2013, it ranks as the 3rd easiest place to do business in sub-Saharan Africa and the 52nd out of 185 countries examined globally.