A meeting bringing together stakeholders from various segments of the society was held yesterday in Kigali with participants urging for closer collaboration on ICT issues by all players.

The meeting, which attracted participants from the ICT sector, government and civil society, aimed at discussing present and future challenges associated with the use of the internet.

Speaking at the forum, Ignace Gatare, the Minister in Charge of ICT in the Office of the President, said that the country is putting much effort in accelerating the rollout of strategic broadband infrastructure.

He named the Kigali Metropolitan Network, the Wireless Broadband Network and the National Fibre Optic Backbone, as some of the initiatives that have been embarked upon.

"These efforts will surely strengthen the existing private investments in communication infrastructure and eventually boost access to a wide range of broadband services by the population,” the minister said.

Gatare told the participants that, in order to fully exploit opportunities brought about by e-Services such as e-Health, e-Commerce, e-Education and e-Banking, there was need for a strong and effective national organisation which addresses all issues related to internet governance.

"We have to work together to address the recurrent issues of cyber crime, and internet consumer privacy and protection by putting in place a sound regulatory framework which conforms to the global trends,” he stressed.

According to Emmanuel Dusenge, the Senior Expert in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ministry of ICT, Rwanda National Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was created to help raise awareness on the existence of a platform to discuss ICT for development-related issues.

"We are going to suggest a team of individuals to take the lead in compiling terms of reference and a plan of action for the Rwanda IGF,” he said.

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