President Kagame Attributes Africa’s Progress to ICT
President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda has attributed Africa’s progress and economic growth to the role that information and communication technologies are playing.
Kagame made this statement while addressing participants who attended the Viva Technology Conference, known as “VivaTech” in Paris, France. The summit brings together global tech firms and startups.
Quoting the president:
“When you look at the growth of economies across Africa, every country is really doing the best everyone can to make this investment into technologies”.
The Head of State shared Rwanda’s transformation journey and pointed out that the country understood that technology would improve the way of doing things, despite criticism from those who thought otherwise.
He added that this development enabled the country to reverse the way people had been doing things even as some, who did not understand Rwanda’s aspirations, considered it premature.
The President indicated that it was very clear from the beginning that technology was going to be a bridge between the traditional part of Rwanda’s continued growth into the future by connecting the past with the future.
Kagame noted that a lot of things in the technology space show that Africa is moving in the right direction.
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BHe revealed that the country had created the Smart Africa Alliance, and this means that Rwanda has to digitize and look at digital economies’ growth to enable overall growth and development of our countries.
Explaining further, the Alliance brings together twenty-six countries with a combined population of six hundred million people. This, the President stressed that is a great step towards integration.
For instance, he said, if Africa created one network, it would bring together the African people. Equally, it will make it easier and cheaper for them to communicate.
He advised that there is a need to make sure that technologies are accessible, so that people can tap into them to add value to what is already being done. Speaking further, he iterated that technology brings efficiency.
