Rwanda National ICT Policy

Human Resource Development

The GOR recognises that Rwanda’s greatest resource is its human resources (HRs). As such, the GOR intends to focus on increasing the capacity of youth to access and benefit from ICT development.

Education

The GOR explicitly recognises the importance and necessity of ICT development within the education system. Therefore, the GOR is committed to deploying ICTs throughout the educational systems within primary, secondary, college, university and technical institutions.

Civil and Public Services

In order to provide efficient and accessible governmental services, the GOR recognises the importance of ICTs in bridging the rural and urban divide.

Service Sector into Regional Business Hub

The intent of this sectoral policy is to encourage the service sector’s use of ICT to establish a new regional business hub, modelled on the Dubai strategy. Primarily, the GOR is interested in developing its capacity for offshore banking and financial services.

Private Sector

The Private Sector’s importance in developing the ICT infrastructure and services is recognised by the GOR. Consequently, the GOR intends to create a positive environment that encourages participation through appropriate legislative and governance initiatives.
The private sector’s participation in the expansion of ICT infrastructure is viewed as key to development; as a result, the GOR intends to privatise government services (Telecommunications and Mass Media, etc.) and to encourage specialised training and research and development centres. To achieve these goals, the GOR recognises that the physical infrastructure requires rapid upgrading and construction.

Legislation and Governance

As mentioned above, the GOR intends to create an appropriate environment of legislative and regulatory initiatives that will encourage, protect and provide increased access and services for all sectors of society in both the private and public spheres. Principally, the GOR intends to “liberalise” governmental services and infrastructure to meet local demand and international standards.

In concert with the legislative structures, the GOR will create several governance bodies: The National Information Technology Commission (NITC); the NITC working groups, The National Geographic Data Committee (NGDC) and the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA).