Before departing Rwanda yesterday, the visiting Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and her delegation toured the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, and kLab (Knowledge Lab), an open technology hub in Kigali where students, fresh graduates, entrepreneurs and innovators come to work on their projects.

At the ministry, the visiting delegation was briefed on how Rwanda is benefiting from an European Union-funded project involving cutting-edge technology which makes it easy to obtain accurate and reliable agricultural statistics.

"Estonia is a tech-savvy country and, since they are now holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, they want to look at EU funded projects, and one such project is under our ministry,” Ange Soubirous Tambineza, the ministry’s programme manager for agriculture information and communication, told reporters.

According to Tambineza, national agriculture statistics are nowadays better – providing accurate and timely information up to district level and thus enabling the ministry to make informed decisions - thanks to the EU’s nearly Euro 3 million project.

The upgraded Seasonal Agriculture Survey (SAS) project is designed to provide data for all three agricultural seasons in the country. The EU supported the National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda (NISR) to upgrade the Seasonal Agriculture Survey.

The support comprises technical assistance in the agriculture survey process, equipment and software.

Technology labs

From the Ministry of Agriculture, the delegation headed to kLab, a unique open technology hub in Kigali where students, fresh graduates, entrepreneurs and innovators come to work on their ideas to turn them into viable business models.

Here, the visitors were given a guided tour of the five-year-old kLab, and FabLab (fabrication laboratory), a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication, which started last year.

"We showed her what we do, and how we do it. And this includes helping young entrepreneurs and fresh graduates to turn their good ideas into real businesses,” kLab general manager Aphrodice Mutangana, told Saturday Times.

"We are showing where Rwanda is headed; like how young people can provide solutions to problems or challenges the country is facing. We, for example, have developed a drone for use in agriculture; to spray pesticides.”

Mutangana said they have, for example, started teaching children of nine to 16 years, how to code.

"We believe that creativity and innovation is not only for young adults alone but even kids of below 10 as they can be taught. Everyone can be innovative,” he said.

The visit

President Kaljulaid arrived in Rwanda on Thursday and visited Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Gisozi, where she laid a wreath and paid homage to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Later Thursday, President Paul Kagame held bilateral talks with President Kaljulaid at Village Urugwiro before hosting her and her delegation to a dinner.

The visit was part of an African tour which also previously took her to Ethiopia, where she met with the country’s leaders and officials of the African Union.

On Thursday, Mailin Aasmäe, a Spokesperson in the Office of the President of Estonia, said while in Kigali President Kaljulaid would discuss among other things the forthcoming 5th African Union EU Summit as well as bilateral relations between the two countries and possible cooperation with Estonian enterprises in digital field.

It was her first-ever visit to Africa.

Estonia, a country in Northern Europe nearly twice the size of Rwanda (45,227 sq km), holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time, from July-December.

Known as the birthplace of Skype, a telecommunications application software product that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls, Estonia is a very tech-savvy country, with one of the highest adult literacy rates in the world – 99.8 per cent, according to UN Educationa and Scientific Organisation. editorial@newtimes.co.rw