The Rwandan government released the country’s first ICT report on Friday, January 25, urging more private sector investment.
“This is the first report to be issued; now we know where we are and where we want to go, what we’re aiming for is to speed up our work,” Jean Philbert Nsengimama, Minister of Youth and ICT, said.
Nsengimama told the press that there is room for the strengthening of partnerships between the private and public sector.
Noted progress includes cell phone use increase from 41 to 53 percent and Internet penetration shot up from 8 to 26 percent.
Technological development signified by these results boosts the image of Rwanda as an emerging African country, on top of climbing the International Development Index (IDI) seven places in the “Measuring the Information Society 2012” International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report.
The ITU report also showed a three percent increase from two to five percent in household computers in Rwandan homes has occurred.
This compiled debut of Rwandan progress, measuring the country’s ICT performance and tracking with regards to socio-economic development, is relied upon for the review of national policies and the provision of international perspective on national achievements during 2012.
The Ministry of Youth and ICT (MYICT), in a joint effort with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) and other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were responsible for the accumulation of the results.
“Measuring the Information Society” by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the “UN e-Government Survey” by the United Nations (UN) were also taken into account in Rwanda’s report compilation.
