President Paul Kagame’s role in promoting the use of ICT in development has been given another boost.

The visiting International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Secretary General, Dr Hamadoun Toure, made an acknowledgement of the President’s role in ICT development; while also inviting him, to play another leading role, in the ITU-AU Summit, slated for January, 2010.

Rwanda has been steadfast in its goal of becoming a regional ICT hub. The government has made investment, through various programmes, digitally connecting all Rwandans, be it in the urban areas or rural, as spelt out in the country’s Vision 2020.

We reported this week, that government has started negotiating with Kenya over a possible partnership to connect the country’s backbone with the TEAMS marine optic fiber cable.

A $24 million beneficiary from the World Bank (WB) Regional Communication Infrastructure Program, will establish the country’s capacity to provide broadband connectivity and access to low cost international connectivity.

Other initiatives include, a multi-million ICT centre currently under construction at the National University of Rwanda.

This development comes days after the OLPC Global Learning Cente, made Rwanda their choice in Africa, to move their Boston headquarters.

Through the One Laptop per Child project, government has the big ambition of ensuring that the OLPC program reaches, all 2.2 million primary school children by 2012.

All these initiatives wouldn’t have come in successfully without a strong political will from the highest office.

Government’s commitment is a clear indication that Rwanda is very well on the super highway of being a regional ICT hub.

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