About the Department 

The department focuses on sector policy orientation and interpretation on ICT and Skills development.

Key Achievements

Rwanda continues to witness steady uptake of ICT in the society. By the end of 2018, almost 4 million people subscribed to the Internet, up from 3.7 million at end 2018. The mobile-cellular subscriptions in 2018 saw 10% increase (9,665,544 from 8,819,217) in the same year but the pace of growth is slowing; indicating the fact that the market may be reaching at the saturation point.

The Internet penetration, on the other hand, remains bullish as the fastest growing market segment. It has garnered continuous double-digit growth rates in 2018 which pushed the national penetration rate to 52 per cent. The figure indicates that there was more than three times increase in the penetration rate in the mere five years. 

The Smart Rwanda Master Plan (SRMP) was approved by the cabinet on November 3rd 2015. This strategic plan towards the knowledge-based economy focuses on the digital transformation in seven key sectors which are Governance, Education, Health, Finance, Gender and Youth mainstreaming, Trade and Industry, and Agriculture.

In order to achieve the transformation in these sectors, it relies on three key enablers including ICT governance and management, digital talent development, and broadband for all through shared ICT infrastructure.

In 2018, following the 4G LTE rollout to all districts, other noticeable broadband access initiatives started such as free WiFi deployment in buses and in public places.

As of December 2018, Rwanda’s 4G penetration is recorded at 96.6% of population coverage. 47.7% of the total population has access to Internet and 82.6 % of them are subscribed to mobile cellular phone services. Mobile money subscribers have increased from 9,912,735 users in 2017 to 1,1067,077 in 2018.

Through “irembo” platform (Government’s e-service portal), Rwandans can access 89 government services online via mobile devices and/or PCs. Those services include: Government to Citizen (G2C) and Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Government (G2G) services.

ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT

ICT is an enabler for development which cuts across all sectors. As such, tracking of implementation of ICT programme requires factoring in activities and contributions from various sectors. This report is a compilation of indicators that have been selected to measure Rwanda’s ICT sector performance and track ICT for Development programs which will guide the implementation of current national policies and strategies as well as to facilitate formulation of new policies and strategies to further uptake of ICT to help develop the country. It has been compiled from the information collected from sectors such as Governance, Health, Education, Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Justice, Finance and the private sector to get holistic picture. A particular emphasis was placed on tracking the current adoption and use of key ICT systems, services, and solutions in the above mentioned sectors to showcase the trends of the ICT evolution in Rwanda.

Fore more information, read the ICT Sector profile 2018.