KAMONYI- The Minister in President’s Office in charge of Information, and Communication Technology, has asked local leaders to promote the use of the available technologies.

Dr. Ignace Gatare made the remarks while touring Muhanga and Kamonyi districts, Tuesday. The minister’s visit was aimed at assessing the use of ICT programs at district level and the use of Business Development Centres (BDC) in both districts.

Gatare said: "The role of local leaders is very important in creating awareness among residents. ICT should be placed among the development goals of local leaders so as to impact on community development strategies.”

During his tour, the Minister inspected activities of BDC’s and district fibre optic nodes-which have been installed in 27 districts countrywide.

Gatare noted that the government has invested heavily in ICT facilities and the equipment should be put into good use, optimised and improve the flow of information and communications between leaders and residents.

He also encouraged districts to work closely with the Rwanda Development Board-IT unit to train more residents in ICT skills and services.

"Our target should be to bridge the digital divide by having many people use technology at all levels. This requires coming up with a strategic plan to train many people in both public and private sectors,” Gatare said.

It was clear that most districts have not been able to develop an internal networking and database systems.

The Minister asked the districts to develop cost effective systems to manage information, files, and other databases.

The Minister recommended that an IT technician should be deployed at the Kamonyi BDC Tele-centre, to put into use the computers currently lying idle.

Local leaders resolved to devise ways of raising ICT awareness and training residents. They, however, asked the Ministry to advocate for lowering the costs of ICT services, design a proper marketing and implementation plan.

"The use of ICT is to be a placed among our priorities and there is need to come up with a strategic plan of training various residents, leaders and creating more awareness,” said Jacques Rutsinga, the Kamonyi Mayor.

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