Minister Paula Ingabire took Mr. Hafez Ghanem; The World Bank Vice President for African Region, to visit some of Rwanda's youth tech hubs: Klab Rwanda and Fablab Rwanda. This happened on this Friday, May 17, 2019.

They also hold a panel discussion alongside Patrick Buchana, the CEO of AC Group and a graduate of Fablab on challenges facing African tech start-ups.

Minister Paula Ingabire adds that the Government of Rwanda is keen on opening and sharing data sets on gaps identified in the country to help innovators develop solutions that are relevant to existing needs. And Minister Paula Ingabire says that the Government is already looking into setting up policies that enable start-ups to compete at same level with large bidders.

Minister Paula Ingabire adds that to allow Rwanda become an innovation Hub, the Government is open to free flow of labour and opening up Rwanda as a Proof of Concept hub.

Mr. Hafez Ghanem remarks that sharing of experiences is important as it feeds into the dream of having a Single Digital Market. He said, “Africa as a single market is a massive market, as wide as India. And we are talking on how to have African markets interact with each other digitally, how to harmonize regulations to ease cross border trade.”

Mr. Ghanem also said; "Our research shows that 10% increase in broadband penetration can increase up to 1.4% of GDP. And our work on digital economy covers many areas; infrastructure, regulations, skills and developing platforms."

An investment banker in the audience shared his insight on ICT innovations, highlighting that ICT does not stand on its own but rather feeds into all other industries.