The Ministry of ICT and Innovation, MasterCard Foundation and Cenfri on Wednesday, June 2, have signed a tripartite MoU which seeks to initiate a three-year digital transformation programme which aims at enhancing the country’s digital capabilities and systems. Cenfri is a pan-African think tank whose aim is to deepen financial inclusion across the continent. The development comes after the government charted an ambitious plan to achieve rapid digital transformation and embrace the digital economy, scale up service delivery as well as creating more job opportunities for nationals. The Covid-19 outbreak has also provided lessons that digitization in all forms of life is greatly needed in the modern days than ever before, as testified by Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovation who was gracing the launch of the programme. “During the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve seen digital payments grow more than tenfold and it’s these gains that we want to build on and unlock further growth and adoption of digital payments,” she said. To sustain those gains, she added, will require data insights that will inform cashless policy decisions, unlock barriers to adoption of digital payment channels as well as track the response and impact of these interventions in driving the cashless agenda. For Rica Rwigamba, the country director of MasterCard Foundation in Rwanda, it is important to support the sustainability of innovative interventions like the one being launched so as to scale up employment opportunities to the youths. “Unlocking significant, long-lasting efficiencies in financial inclusion and productivity for young men and women will help to increase their access to employment opportunities and entrepreneurship,” The project will be implanted by Cenfri and 71point4, both South Africa-based research and data firms that hailed the initiative, describing it as a great contributor to their learning. “This partnership presents an opportunity to build on our learnings and achieve real impact together over the coming years. Over the last five years, our work in Rwanda as part of the insight2impact (i2i) program, highlighted the power of data to advance financial-sector development and improve economic and financial inclusion,” said Doubell Chamberlain, Managing Director and Founder of Cenfri. According to a statement released by the institutions, the program will operate in three main approaches: making data and trend analysis easily accessible; supporting the application of data to policy actions; and accompanying public sector staff to utilize data-driven approaches. Focusing on the agriculture and retail trade sectors, the program will closely work with the central bank, the regulatory body and the private sector to explore access to data that can assist in achieving a cashless national economy.
