Rwandan NICI Plan 20062010 A Draft Proposal

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Rwandan NICI Plan 2006-2010 A Draft Proposal

• Antoine Bigirimana
• CEO, Electronic Tools Company (E-TOOLS)
• Sep 21, 2005

electronic tools company
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Todays Presentation

• Introduction
• NICI Plan Proposal
• Conclusion

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Introduction What should be the objective of
NICI Plan 2006-2010

• An E-Government Design and Implementation?
• A development blueprint that is using ICT as an
  enabler and an accelerator for the next 5 years?

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Introduction What is ICT in Rwanda

• Information and Communications Technologies
• Radio
• Television
• Communication technologies used for land
  telephone lines
• cellular telephony
• Voice over IP
• dial-up internet
• ISDN-based internet
• various technologies used for broadband internet
• Computer Software use
• Computer Software development
• Computer Hardware Use, Assembly and Repair

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Introduction How this proposal is designed

• An overview of ICT accomplishments in Rwanda in
  the last 3 years from the authors viewpoint.
• A critical look at NICI Plan 2001-2005 and its
  implementation.
• A draft proposal for a NICI Plan 2006-2010

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Introduction Critical Look at NICI -1

• The NICI Plan 2001-2005 is long on e-government
  ICT implementations and short on how all those
  implementations will benefit the poor person on
  the hills who cannot read and write foreign
  languages like English and French or those who
  cannot read or write at all. The overwhelming
  majority of Rwandans are in these two categories.
  
• Rwanda was not able to raise half a billion
  necessary to implement the NICI Plan 2001-2005

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Introduction Critical Look at NICI -1

• It did not give the private sector a leadership
  role.
• The government was to execute the plan and if
  necessary would invite the private sector in a
  partnership.
• It seemed that the government was to create
  software companies in University incubators.
• The funding of local software company was to come
  from special Bank loans No concept of Venture
  Capital funds was introduced for non-military
  software ventures.

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Introduction Critical Look at NICI -1

• A very positive aspect of ICT development for
  2001-2005 is that it was mostly led by the
  Private Sector Terracom laid many kilometers of
  fiber optics around Kigali and across the
  country, Artel spread its VSATs for rural
  communications throughout the country, Rwandacell
  made GSM phones the premier medium for
  communication, E-Tools offered for the first time
  professional software that can speak Kinyarwanda,
  E-ICT successfully offered ICT training on a
  large scale. Many software modules required by
  NICI Plan 2001-2005 were implemented by E-Tools
  in a partnership with the Government.

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Introduction Critical Look at NICI -1

• Some of the work not mentioned in the old NICI
  Plan was also done localization of Linux to
  Kinyarwanda was done for the very first time.
• Now we are starting to plan for Windows in
  Kinyarwanda.

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Introduction NICI Plan 2006-2010

• The NICI Plan 2006-2010 is presented as a logical
  continuation of the National Information and
  Technology Plan included in the NICI Plan
  2001-2005. It still uses the same 8 pillars of
  development. However, the pillars have been
  re-worked to match what, in our judgment, the new
  times require.

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Introduction NICI Plan 2006-2010

• The NICI activities are described in the 8
  pillars
• (1) Human Resource Development
• (2) Promotion of ICT in Education
• (3) Facilitating Government Administration and
  Service Delivery
• (4) Developing and Facilitating the Private
  Sector through ICT
• (5) Development and Spread of ICT in the
  Community
• (6) ICT Infrastructure Development
• (7) Legal, Regulatory and Institutional
  Provisions and Standards
• (8) Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

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Introduction NICI Plan 2006-20010

• For each of these 8 pillars, the objective is to
  make Rwanda a developed country and an ICT hub
  for East and Central Africa this is achieved by
  using ICT-powered 7-step development ladder to
  pull the underclass into the middle class. The
  7-step ladder is a roadmap showing how to use ICT
  to achieve development goals in a timely manner.
  The 7-step ladder uses ICT as an enabler and an
  accelerator in the pursuit of development
  objectives.
• It is designed around the central idea of
  creating a big and highly competent middle class
  that uses ICT as a tool for increasing
  productivity in public and private sectors and
  for creating exportable goods.

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Introduction NICI Plan 2006-20010

• For each pillar, we look at suggested activities
  for local, regional and international markets and
  corresponding strategies.
• The overall strategy is to make ICT Tools
  appropriate for Rwandas development but to
  design them in such a way that they can be
  re-sold to countries in the region

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7-Step Development Ladder as a Development Model

• Model Developed in April 2005 out of necessity
• Rwanda has Tiny elite (less than 10,000 people),
  1,000/month or more
• Rwanda has very small middle class (less than
  90,000 people), less than 1,000/month, more than
  80/month, i.e. at least 4/day
• Rwanda has very large under-class (more than 8
  million people), less than 4/day, for the
  majority of the underclass less than 1/day

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Antoines 7-Step Development Ladder as a
Development Model

• Development strategy major objective move half
  the under-class (the half that can read and write
  Kinyarwanda) into the middle class by 2010, i.e.
  raise their income to at least 4 per day
• The 7-step development ladder uses ICT as the
  power tool of choice to achieve a development
  stage in a timely manner.
• ICT is used as an accelerator for reaching
  quickly the development stage.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 1

• the underclass needs to understand the ICT tool
  as the underclass speaks only Kinyarwanda, there
  is a need for ICT that speaks Kinyarwanda Linux
  or Windows in Kinyarwanda Office Productivity
  Tools in Kinyarwanda Skill-oriented software
  tools that speak Kinyarwanda. This is achieved by
  pillar 2 Promotion of ICT in Education and
  pillar 4 Development and Promotion of Private
  Sector through ICT.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 2

• The underclass needs practical training in a
  minimum amount of time, i.e. training that leads
  to immediate action and results ICT can help by
  interactive and online (internet) learning
  followed by hands-on application under the
  supervision of knowledgeable mentors. This should
  take place in one of 12 centers of ICT Institute.
  Each of the 12 Rwandan provinces should be home
  to one of these centers. This is achieved by
  pillar 1 Human Resource Development and pillar
  4 Development and Promotion of Private Sector
  through ICT.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 3

• the underclass lives on rural hills and needs a
  place to access ICT (e-mail, voice-mail,
  internet, telephone, messages, ICT training)
  1000 hills require 1000 telecenters (4 networked
  refurbished desktop or notebook computers running
  Linux in Kinyarwanda, one Tuvugane phone, one
  refurbished printer/FAX, one FMS once-a-day
  connection node). This is accomplished by pillar
  5 Deployment and Spread of ICT in the
  Community.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 4

• After acquiring practical skills, the underclass
  needs to get jobs, make more money and join the
  middle class this requires the use of internet
  to find the jobs that correspond with the skills
  acquired online continuing education slow but
  steady migration to the middle class. This is
  accomplished by pillar 5 Deployment and Spread
  of ICT in the Community.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 5

• As the middle class grows and the competition for
  existing jobs heats up, the enlarged middle class
  needs to create its own jobs it needs an
  ICT-powered Government administration that does
  not waste time, is not arrogant and does not
  misplace filed documents. It needs a streamline
  process of creating and registering companies it
  needs access to Business Plans advisors it needs
  access to loans and equity funding it needs a
  simplified, fast and accurate process of paying
  taxes online it needs streamlined Customs
  procedures it needs transparency and
  accountability in Government it needs
  appropriate laws to create a level playing field
  and it needs an ICT-powered easy access to those
  laws and regulations.
• This is accomplished by pillar 3 Facilitating
  Government Administration and Service Delivery
  and pillar 7 Legal, Regulatory and
  Institutional Provisions and Standards.

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7-Step Development Ladder step 6

• Rwanda is a small market it gets quickly
  saturated the growing middle and upper classes
  turn to the export markets they need ICT-powered
  information on those markets they need
  ICT-powered communication infrastructure to
  research those markets and communicate with
  potential foreign partners and clients. This is
  accomplished by pillar 6 ICT Infrastructure
  Development..

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7-Step Development Ladder step 7

• As the production increases to satisfy foreign
  markets, it becomes easier to attract foreign
  direct investments (FDI) and there is an
  opportunity and a need to pull the remaining
  underclass into the job market and increase their
  chance to join the middle class. This is
  accomplished by pillar 2 Promotion of ICT in
  Education. For step 7, the pillar 2 is used as
  follows Rwandan engineers will develop software
  to teach the illiterate underclass to read and
  write Kinyarwanda the method used is the same
  method used to teach kids in developed countries
  to read and write using computerized gadgets.
  This method would use the community telecenters
  on the hills and the instructors could be people
  with a 5th grade education at an extremely low
  cost. The pillar 2 would bring the remaining
  underclass to the required knowledge for step 1.
  Attracting FDI is accomplished by pillar 8
  Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

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NICI 2006-2010 Implementation of each pillar

• The details of implementation activities are
  suggested for each pillar in sufficient details
• The cost is not always computed as this is just a
  draft.

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Conclusion

• NICI Plan 2006-2010 should not be just an
  e-government plan
• NICI Plan 2006-2010 should create incentives for
  the private sector to take the lead, initially by
  organizing Public-Private Partnership and later
  on by letting the Private For-Profit Sector take
  over while the State maintains a level-playing
  field
• NICI Plan 2006-2010 should be for development of
  the many and not the few who speak English or
  French
• NICI Plan 2006-2010 should be about using ICT to
  energize all the sectors of the economy in order
  to create as many GOOD JOBS as possible.

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Conclusion

• NICI Plan 2006-2010 should be driven by needs of
  local, regional and international markets and the
  activities in each pillar should reflect that.
• There should be an overall strategy that shows
  the proper implementation sequence for all NICI
  pillars.

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Thank you

• MURAKOZE