Breaking: Rwanda pioneers global initiative to connect schools to the internet

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:42 pm

Rwanda has been selected to lead the Giga initiative of connecting every school in Africa by 2030.

The initiative was launched in 2019 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with aim to provide connectivity to every school in the world by 2030.

Statistics show that so far some 3.6 billion people in the world do not have access to the Internet.

Giga initiative has four pillars namely; mapping connectivity demand, advising on financing possibilities, connecting in partnership internet providers and empowering internet users with skills.

Speaking to The New Times, Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation said that this is an opportunity for Rwanda to speed up her already existing efforts to digitalize schools among other priority services.

She said: “It is a great initiative for us because it comes to complement the already existing efforts we had of last mile connectivity to different essential services like schools.”

“It will also help us to get more partners as we will be having shared objectives and responsibilities to connect some of these priority services,” she added.

According to Ingabire, Rwanda will be providing coordination support for the program, mobilize partner countries to look for finances and get more countries embarking on this initiative.

The country will also champion and become a role model of the Giga project of connecting schools and sharing experience with fellow countries that will be embarking on the same ambition.

Rwanda is one of African countries that began the mapping exercise of internet connectivity needs in schools, whereby in 2018 the country partnered with UNICEF and mapped over 4,000 schools country-wide.

(TheNewTimes)