Commonwealth e-governance forum begins Tuesday

The Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) annual African e-Government forum begins Tuesday in Kigali. The annual event that starts on the 24th - 27th at Serena Hotels in Kigali is the third of its kind and the first in Rwanda hostage. The forum will give an opportunity to Information, Communication, and Technologies (ICT) stakeholders to voice their views, insights, knowledge, and share experiences. It also regarded as Africa’s leading e-government conference will attract Ministers of Technology, heads of e-government projects, civil society leaders and representatives from IT organisations including mobile operators, infrastructure providers, foundations, development, and donor agencies. President Paul Kagame is expected to give a key-note address on Rwanda’s rapid development in the ICT sector. The Kigali forum will be under the theme: “Utilising ICTs to improve transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions.” Some of the topics to be discussed include government policy, private sector initiatives, public private partnerships, funding, Infrastructure, technology, capacity building, content, e-readiness, e-schools, e-health, e-learning and e-citizens. CTO, an international development partnership between Commonwealth, non-Commonwealth governments, and business and civil society organisations, as the event organiser says that participants will discuss current issues and witness success stories on e-government in Africa. The institution provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing programmes in the use of ICT in the specific areas of Telecommunications, Broadcasting and the Internet. E-Government is the use by government agencies of information technologies, such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. Last year’s event was hosted by Uganda under the theme; “Utilising ICT for more efficient, effective and Inclusive governance.” This was after the success of the introductory conference held in Ghana. Ends