KIGALI - The Rwanda Immigration Department has been nominated for the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) 2009 Award, for its innovative Online Visa Application.

Out of the 57 applications received from across Africa only Rwanda, Zambia, Ghana, South Africa, and Uganda made it to the final five.

The award, jointly sponsored by AAPAM and the Commonwealth Secretariat in London aims at promoting effectiveness in performance of organizations in the public sector by encouraging and recognizing organizations and people for innovative, creative and effective ways of solving specific problems of administration and management.

In an interview, Director General of the Immigration and Emigration Department, Anaclet Kalibata, hailed the department for being nominated for the prestigious award.

"We submitted our Online Visa Application for the competition. We are glad to have made the top five list.

We are hoping that we will be successful and get the trophy,” Kalibata said.

According to Kalibata, a delegation from the Immigration Department is in Nairobi for the next stage of the competition that will involve an interview with the jury and a presentation of the Online Visa application.

The official noted that the nomination indicates that the department is on the right path towards an even better future.

"The recognitions of ICT innovativeness means a lot to us. It shows that we are on the right track towards an even better future.”

Earlier on, the department scooped the inaugural Intego Awards by the Rwanda Information Technology Agency when it came top in e-Government. The Intego Awards are dedicated to honouring ICT excellence.

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