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Minister Nsengimana Calls People to Consider ICT As a Necessity(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, has called on the population to consider ICT as a necessity rather than just leisure, considering its role in national development. He made the call during while announcing the launch of the Smart Rwanda Days that will take place on Wednesday and Thursday this week in Kigali under the theme 'Digitising Rwanda.' According to the ministry, the Smart Rwanda Days will be attended by about 400 ICT industry experts, policy makers, young innovators and development partners from Africa and beyond to discuss on how Rwanda and Africa at large can leverage ICT to accelerate economic growth and competitiveness in the transformation era. Rwanda's target for Vision 2020 includes transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy from an agrarian one. Nsengimana stressed that Rwanda has made tremendous progress in terms of ICT in the past 15 years, with mobile penetration having reached 70%, two percent above the continent's average. In terms of internet penetration, Rwanda is at 22% while the African average is 16%. ICT contribution to the GDP during the last two quarters stood at 2%. In terms of foreign direct investment, ICT attracted 45% of the total which is more than the combined sectors of trade, financial services, mining and manufacturing. He pointed out that the use of ICT has been an important driver in different sectors of economy and social welfare but that still people need to adopt it for more benefits. "We need to move from being passive consumers to active producers," Nsengimana remarked, calling on the private sector to take the initiative. While ICT use and services are currently mainly the business of people in cities, the Minister requested service providers to move from their zone of comfort and bring ICT to rural areas. He however recognized that ICT literacy and electricity penetration in those regions are still a challenge to ICT. Copyright Rwanda Focus. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |