The Indian  based organisation "Drishtee” has signed a deal with Nyamata Teleservice Centre (NTC), aimed at developing and delivering a wide range of services to rural areas through Telecentres in Rwanda.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Nyamata, Bugesera district on October 25 as a climax of a four-day visit of Drishtee team to Rwanda, according to a statement.

Paul Barera, the proprietor of Nyamata Teleservice Centre, signed the deal on behalf of NTC, while Nitin Gachhayat, signed on behalf of the Indian firm.

"It basically focuses on sharing experience that Drishtee has in creating and sustaining Telecentre network. Drishtee has been successful in India. We shall also utilise this cooperation to bridge the digital divide and support rural entrepreneurs,” Barera said on Tuesday.

Specific initiatives  such as disseminating agriculture related knowledge to rural areas, using mobile phones and related technologies, promoting Rwanda’s handcrafts,  setting up Call Centres and Rural business process outsourcing (BPOs) will be implemented under this partnership, according to the statement.

This initiative is widely seen as a remedy to the problem of sustainability and scalability of Telecentres in Rwanda.

Nyamata telecentre is one of the surviving telecentres in Rwanda.

According to Barera, rural Rwanda constitutes more than 90 percent of the total population, however, urban commercial and service players have often ignored this vast majority due to its  low purchasing power.

This, he said, has led to the rural populace being deprived of various latest developments including technologies and other services in the field of education, finance and agriculture.

Drishee, is a highly credible social enterprise that works towards creating a significant socio-economic impact at village levels in India -by providing a sound supply chain based platform for services such as health, education, banking and microfinance.

So far it has created a network of 4,200 micro-enterprises in India. Meanwhile, Nyamata telecentre won this year’s Intego Award for bridging the Digital Divide.
 
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