3rd phase of ICT dev’t plan takes off

The third phase of the National Information and Communication Infrastructure Policy (NICI Plan 3; 2011-2015) which will see the development and use of new services acquired during phases one and two, was unveiled yesterday.In 2000, Rwanda launched the National ICT Plan (NICI I). It was formulated to take place over four, five year cycles. The first, from 2000 to 2005, focused on the creation of a fertile, enabling environment in Rwanda for ICTs initiatives to take hold.The second, from 2006 to 2010, placed emphasis on the development of key ICT infrastructure such as the laying of fibre optic cables. Speaking at a news conference yesterday, the Minister in the President’s office in charge of ICT, Dr Ignace Gatare, said the third phase has been broadly divided into five areas, ICT skills development, private sector development, ICT for community development, e-Government and cyber security.“Under this plan we are looking at improving formal and non-formal education. With the use of fibre optic cable, we want to ensure that there is much of open distance learning in the country,” said Gatare. Under the private sector cluster in the NICI III, the government intends to roll out the use of electronic payment systems across the country and improve access to finance, among others. “We also want to take the ICT facilities down to the people by digitalising all the government programmes, increase the tele-centres in the country as well as use of tele-medicine,” Gatare added For each of five pillars of NICI III, a cluster working group of diverse groups of planners and stakeholders has been created. The clusters will set goals and develop projects to be undertaken in each area, as well as identify the greatest needs and points of intervention. Through this system, NICI III will have a degree of creativity and flexibility absent from the previous two phases.According to experts, e-Government, which focuses on the creation and use of ICTs for delivering government services, must work closely with cyber security to ensure confidentiality and safe-keeping of records. “ICT for community development, while focused on awareness, availability and affordability of services, especially in remote areas, will work closely with private sector development, which includes entrepreneurial and business training for ICT providers in these areas,” said Hon. Gatare. While NICI-3 is a big step in Rwanda’s ICT development, the newly created approach of cluster working groups brings a measure of cooperation and creativity to the project that was not there before. Meanwhile, as he addressed journalists, the minister also unveiled the current state of technological usage in the country saying that since the introduction of NICI Plans, the market was automatically liberalised with key private players taking the lead. “Following the establishment of the legal and regulatory frameworks, we now have eleven Internet Service Providers (ISPs) three telecom companies and 4.4 million voice subscribers. Rwanda brings in 1.12 gigabytes of bandwidth per second and there are 700,000 internet users in the country,” said Gatare. Regarding the financial status of the ICT sector, Gatare said ICT generates on average, revenues totalling to about Rwf100 billion, and attributed the development to the continuous development of the sector.