FEATURE:The long but bright road of a holistic development through ICT infrastructure

For development to be ideal and impactful it has to be principally central to addressing people’s needs and people also have to be at the heart of every development intended for them. One of the basic tools which were developed to establish the actual needs of people before an intervention is launched is a needs assessment. This is an exercise where the intended beneficiaries of a particular program have to be asked what they think will solve their particular problem. The cardinal aim of such exercises like participatory situation analysis is to get the beneficiaries on board from the onset such that they own the program and participate at all its stages right from initiation, implementation to evaluation. Rwanda has fantastic developmental priorities and programs like Ubudehe, EDPRS and others which are directed towards a solid vision 2020. Some of these programs like Ubudehe are class-of-the art projects which harness all preliquisites of a well balanced and empowering development, and that’s why beneficiaries have highly participated and owned the day-today running of these initiatives hence the positive results. Among the many groundbreaking programs the government is involved in is the promotion of an ICT based economy through equipping its people with ICT skills. This is done in order to make them competent in the job market as well as easing the process of wealth creation. Though some people at first saw it as a far cry when RITA started its rollout of village telecenters, but as we speak many people’s lives have been transformed through these ICT facilities. According to information obtained from RITA website, the prime reason for the installation of the telecenters the Rural and Community Access (RCA) unit has gone a step further to bridge the ICT gap existing between the rural poor and the urban dwellers by implementing the ICT knowledge-based projects. In Gicumbi refugees have also started benefiting from these facilities in that many have acquired basic computer skills and can now use them to communicate.Some people doing businesses in villages have started benefiting from these telecenters for instance Patrick Gakwaya a trader in Rwamagana can now select his products on internet before ordering for them, this has eased his connectivity with his suppliers. However despite this steady expansion of ICT facilities to the villages, some people have been left out of this trend.The people who have been significantly served by this trend are the semi-elites and of cause the village elites because these are the ones who can read and grasp English which is the language of instruction in the materials packagedin the ICT facilities. A large segment of people living in the villages are illiterate so some of them have found the ICT facilities alien to solving their problems and many have acted unmoved by these establishments because they don’t know the first thing about ICT. Yves Nzamukwereka remarked that he didn’t even know what was happening in the Nyamata telecenter despite passing it every morning, “I don’t really know how it can help me improve my life yet I don’t even know what it is about” he pointed How ever, this being the beginning, with continuous sensitization and training of people in literacy and computer skills, this program will greatly benefit people and this will have connected the missing link since the children will have acquirethe skills as well. One can reliably say that with the deployment of Multi-purpose community telecenters to the countryside, the government has certainly taken the right path towards its go-getting vision 2020 and this can be only achieved if it is perceived as a process which will take some time and involve many preparations. The community telecenters were installed with a target of ensuring effective E-Government and E-Governance, Improving the delivery of public and private sector services as well as promoting rural and community access to information contributing towards socio-economic development These centers have provided services like training some communitymembers on different computer applications and have also impacted businesses for instance in some villages cooperatives have thrived on the backup of these centers through acting as their data banks, photocopyingand printing services as well as benefiting from internet. According to Stephen Rwembeho a correspondent with The New times in Rwamagana, some telecenters are busy and helping people. He says the one located in Rwamagana is active and people are responsive but its managers are somehow negligent. He said Ends