NGOMA – Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has started connecting rural-based Tele-Centers to modern farmers in Japan using internet.

On Wednesday, several local ICT students in Ngoma were the first to benefit from this interaction when they interacted with a fish farmer in Japan.

According to Kaoru Kitada, of Education Global Business Office, the idea was to help the Rwandan upcoming IT technicians to understand the broad use of such technologies and to connect the area to the rest of the world.

"Today’s class was meant to show IT technicians that one can access information at the click of a button,” he said. "They must start using the computer to access vital information.”

Gilbert Kainamura Ntambara, the Eastern Province ICT coordinator noted that Tele- Centers have benefited rural farmers and businesspersons in Rwanda.

"Farmers and businesspersons through cooperatives have managed to access important information on the internet. They get one of them who is learned to translate from foreign languages,” he said.

He however, noted that the limited number of Tele-Centres and language barriers have been the greatest challenge to the use of ICT in rural areas.

He also said the distance people travel to access the internet is long thus discouraging targeted beneficiaries. 

"We need at least a Tele-Centre in every sector,” he said.
Jacky Mirembe, an S5 ICT student at Musanve Secondary School, who communicated with a Japanese fish farmer via internet, said she was overwhelmed by the technology.

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