The Ministry of Youth and ICT, also known as MYICT, says it has developed a strategy that will help track and assess ICT progress in various institutions, including learning institutions.The assessment, which will be quarterly, will cover all the sectors, with the view of measuring how the country performs in the ICT domain, and what that means in terms of national development.ICT, as a cross-cutting enabling tool to socio-economic programmes, is indispensable in Rwanda’s development path, and understanding how the country fairs in this area, will be key for planning and investment purposes.In recent years, Rwanda has made significant strides in ICT, earning herself a place in the league of countries with strong, dynamic ICT markets.Initiatives such as the laying of the all-important fibre optic cable, continued rolling out of the One Laptop Per Child programme, the Innovation Endowment Fund (designed to support entrepreneurship development and research in key sectors), and schemes meant to train a critical mass of specialists in the ICT field, have all helped make Rwanda a “connected” country.Most importantly, with the dockets of ICT and Youth now under the same ministry – and under one roof – the latter will help empower the young people – the bulk of the country’s working class and population – with the tools they need to respond to the challenge of the times, thus taking their country to another level.But all this would not be possible without updated figures, without a clear understanding of the progress and challenges in the ICT field.That’s why the significance of the new programme that will help measure ICT development across the board cannot be overemphasised.
