Monday, June 22, 2009

Rwanda to Open 18 More Telecentres Countrywide

The government of Rwanda will open a further 18 telecentres nationwide
within one month to help enable access to ICT services, the minister
of ICT, Romain Murenzi, told Rwandan daily The New Times. Murenzi
added that there are currently twelve fully functional telecentres in
the country providing services such as internet, telephony and money
transfer, while work on a further 18 is underway.

The government plans to provide the whole country with access to the
internet by 2012, with the aim of closing the digital divide between
rural and urban areas. Soon after the announcement the state began
rolling out the first phase of the telecentre project. Poor telecoms
infrastructure has stifled ICT growth in Malawi; according to
TeleGeography's GlobalComms database, the country had only 126,000
fixed lines at the end of 2008, representing a teledensity of just
0.9% of the population, while the number of broadband subscribers
stood at just over 1,000.

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