Executive Summary
Global ICT policies have become more mainstream in the last decade underpinning growth, jobs,
increasing productivity, enhancing the delivery of public and private services, and achieving
broad socio-economic objectives in the areas of healthcare, education, climate change, energy,
employment and social development. As such, the global ICT industry is fast changing as a
result of emerging technologies, economic, social and business trends. As ICT applications and
services are becoming ubiquitous, they are increasingly essential for ensuring sustainable
economic development, and Rwanda is no exception.
Adopted in 2000, Vision 2020 aims to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country and
transition her agrarian economy to an information-rich, knowledge-based one by 2020. The
Government of Rwanda (GoR) strongly believes that Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) can enable Rwanda leap-frog the key stages of industrialization. As such,
GoR has integrated ICTs, through the NICI process, as a key driver for socio-economic
development to fast track Rwanda’s economic transformation, and consistently strives to align
the country’s development agenda to global trends in order to be competitive.
Since 2000 GoR has established institutions and mechanisms to create an enabling environment
for ICT development, deployed critical world-class infrastructure and is continuously developing
a skilled human resource base in its quest to become a knowledge-based society and regional
ICT hub. Today, the existence of a conducing legal and regulatory framework, availability of
good infrastructure and a growing and innovative human resource base are further positioning
Rwanda as a regional ICT hub. NICI III aims to accelerate “services development” by running
efficient government services and increasing private sector productivity and in turn Rwanda’s
competitiveness.
Rwanda strives to leverage ICTs in all sectors of the economy and is registering tremendous
progress. In 2010, Rwanda was the top global reformer in the World Bank Doing Business
report and second global reformer out of 183 countries in 2011. Rwanda is also the 9th easiest
place to start a business in the world and the 6th most competitive economy in Sub-Saharan
Africa according to the 2010 World Economic Forum global competitiveness report. This has
largely been a result of several reforms including online business registration, aimed at making
the business environment more conducive. Rwanda’s real GDP growth increased from 2.2% in
2003 to 7.2% in 2010 with a peak growth of 11.5% in 2008, and an overall average GDP of 7%.
These achievements are a result of the long-term economic development plan, Vision 2020, its
medium-term strategy, the Economic Development Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), and
the NICI Plan, which all give a clear direction on how Rwanda will transition from poverty to a
middle-income, knowledge-based economy.
The NICI process, which coincides with Vision 2020, begun with the first of four five-year
rolling plans, NICI I (NICI-2005 Plan), that focused on creating the necessary enabling
environment that would enable the establishment and growth of Rwanda’s ICT sector. Emphasis
was placed on establishing the appropriate institutional, legal and regulatory framework,
liberalization of the telecoms market, and reduction of entry barriers to the telecom market as
well as an effective implementation and coordination mechanism.
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