President Paul Kagame on Monday, March 22, said that there is need to forge new partnerships for universal broadband and scale up the investments required to bridge the digital divide.

President Kagame made the remarks while addressing the 2021 spring meeting of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, which he co-chaired with Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire.

The meeting was also attended by Volkan Bozkir, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, among other high-ranked officials.

In his remarks, the President noted that broadband usage has exploded during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, amidst restricted movement in different parts of the world.

However, he pointed out that as life increasingly shifts online, the contrast between the digital haves and have-nots is even more blatant.

"This is particularly true for education. With physical classrooms closed, many students have been unable to join virtual classrooms. Some learners have missed an entire year of schooling,” Kagame said,

"At the same time, as children spend more time online, we must redouble efforts to ensure they are kept safe.” He added.

As a result, the head of state disclosed that the Broadband Commission’s Covid-19 Agenda for Action focuses on three points: Resilient connectivity, affordable access, and online safety.

Kagame also commended the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a key investor in broadband infrastructure.

During the meeting, he also applauded Makhtar Diop on his elevation to Managing Director of the IFC, which is the financing arm of the World Bank.

On a positive note, Kagame noted that with the deployment of vaccines in many countries, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is in sight.

"But the road is still long, particularly in developing economies,” he reiterated.

Established in 2010 as a top-level advocacy body promoting broadband as an accelerator of global development, the United Nations’ Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development in 2018 set out seven targets for 2025 to "Connect the Other Half” of the world’s population.

These targets aim to expand broadband infrastructure to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the current Covid-19 pandemic, broadband connectivity brings great promise to the world’s poor and underserved populations allowing wide access to services in areas such as finance, commerce, education, health, and governance that can enhance well-being, create new opportunities for innovation and employment, as well as boost economic growth.

Like other parts, the pandemic has opened up new opportunities for Africa’s digital economy.

This is according to a new report launched March 20 by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on the impact of Covid-19 on e-commerce in Africa.

The report stated that the growth of the sector was made possible by improved Internet penetration rates, reduced Internet costs and growth of mobile telephony.