Government on Wednesday signed an agreement to acquire Digital Object (DO) Architecture, a system of information management that promotes interoperability across diverse information systems.

The agreement was signed between Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority; DONA Foundation, a Swiss organisation that provides management and software development; Smart Africa; and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI).

Rwanda becomes the second signatory of this agreement in Africa after South Africa and the seventh in the world.

The agreement will allow Rwanda to participate in the Global Handle Registry, a technology for assigning, managing, and resolving persistent identifiers for digital objects and other resources on the Internet.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister for Youth and ICT, said the Digital Object Architecture contributes toward secure management of information as well as aligns with the government’s quest for digital transformation.

"There is loss of information or it ends up in the wrong hands. The system addresses such issues. It is about interoperability, flexibility, scalability and simplicity for information handling for the future. It will help us to better manage information in a way that is resourceful to our citizens,’’ he said.

Our land, houses and roads need to be managed in such a way that is consistent with their nature. Key registries such as land registry, health records, and citizens’ basic information registration will apply in this new architecture,” he said, adding that it will also help in combating counterfeit products.

Alexander Ntoko, chief of operations and planning department at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), also stressed that the system is secure and helps combat counterfeiting.

"It facilitates control of information access. It also understands linguistic and cultural diversity; you can’t be limited by language,” he said.

Dr Robert Kahn, co-inventor of the internet, developer of DO Architecture and CEO of CNRI, said Rwanda was selected because of its commitment to technology and societal development.

He said the system aims to ensure integrity of governments, organisations and individuals’ information.

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