ICTworks

Rolling out the future of Rwanda

I always love conversations with Silicon Valley types who never leave the Bay Area Bubble. When I say that Inveneo is working to bring technology to Africa, I often get a funny look with a quizzical “Technology, in Africa? ” as the usual response. I’ve educated a few on the opportunities that exist in lighting up the “Dark Continent”, but its a slow process.

So I would like to thank Sarah Lacy for doing the same to a larger audience Silicon Valley denizens than I ever could, through her How to Cross the Digital Divide, Rwanda-Style post on TechCrunch. While she does get a touch hyperbole in her fawning over Rwanda’s fiber-optic investments, I give her credit for showing the Valley there is higher-end technology plays that recycled computer donations.

She details five major investments in technology that should shock VC’s into taking a look at African ICT:

1. Investment in mobility – mobile phone ownership & usage is ubiquitous
2. Investment in connectivity – each district of the country will be connected by fiber
3. Investment in access – all thirty districts of the country have low-cost Internet centers
4. Investment in education – Rwanda bought 100,00 XO laptops and hosts OLPC’s Education Center
5. Investment in skills – Rwanda sends 300 students at a time to India Institute of Technology for training

Each of these investments alone would be enough to jolt a country into the 21st Century, but combined, and accelerated by cheaper and better bandwidth, will give Rwanda a great leap forward.

Its a process of national renewal and branding that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is pushing in multiple phases across the country, as Fast Company captured in Rwanda Rising: A New Model of Economic Development.

Let’s just hope that Sand Hill Road takes notice.