Kenya and Rwanda To Bolster Closer ICT Cooperation

By Samuel Ouma [caption id="attachment_105775" align="alignnone" width="960"] Eliud Owalo[/caption] The Kenyan and Rwandan governments are geared up to attain strategic ICT-related goals outlined in an MOU signed between the two nations during President William Ruto’s State visit to Rwanda earlier this year. During the virtual meeting spearheaded by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MIC&DE) Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo, ICT and Digital Economy Principal Secretary Eng. John Tanui; their counterparts in Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Minister Paula Ingabire and Permanent Secretary Yves Iradukunda, the leaders agreed on formulating a working team to assist in the implementation of the MOU. CS Owalo recommended the constitution of a working group consisting of technical teams from both countries to discuss and agree on ways of operationalising the MOU. “We are aligned on the thematic areas which are part and parcel of the MOU. We need to agree on what to do under each component and also come up with a work plan with clear timelines, so that we also know what levels of prioritisation we can attain within each thematic area,” said the CS. He said Kenya is dedicated to embracing and developing digital technology across all sectors. "We have embarked on an ambitious project of digitising government records towards digitalisation of government records as well. Our target is to have all government services aboard technological program by June this year," the CS said. Owalo noted that the country is also keen on domiciling data centres and data recovery systems within the Konza Technopolis. On his part, PS Tanui said the signed MOU between Kenya and Rwanda contained key action points such as; the development of ICT talent, capacity building, digital identity, public infrastructure, cybersecurity, data protection privacy, ICT Policy and Strategy Formulation. Other highlighted points were; emerging technologies adoption, innovation ecosystem development, smart technologies, ICT Research and development, digitisation of government services, collaboration on local smart devices manufacturing, collaboration to increase cross-border trade payments leveraging on e-commerce and digital payments, and collaboration on mutual data recovery services. The PS stated that Kenya is working on enhancing internet connectivity. "We are enhancing our connectivity as a country and this opens up more data points and so we need to enhance our data ecosystem. We have had discussions with some world leaders in cloud services and they have also shared what they are discussing with Rwanda, with the possibility of having presence in the two countries, one being the disaster recovery for the other. It's a highly welcome opportunity for us. As a country, we are looking at having a clear strategy in collaboration with global players," said the PS. His sentiments were echoed by Minister Paula, who reiterated that the issue of connectivity is of paramount interest to their country too. “Particularly for Rwanda as a landlocked country, some of the things we struggle with is figuring out how to further lower the cost of connectivity so that it is more affordable and accessible to the majority of our population. A regional approach as to how we can achieve that is something that we would be very interested in being part of. We look forward to assigning our teams who can be part of these conversations,” she said. Further adding that data is the new oil and the new gold, and there is a need to have a harmonised data strategy in place. “We have been talking to a couple of entrepreneurs and innovators here. I think their biggest challenge is if they are in Kenya looking to scale in Rwanda, or vice-versa, they are going to find themselves into situations where they are dealing with different sets of regulatory regimes. This becomes a prime opportunity for us as policy makers and regulators to figure out how to harmonise this,” she noted. Both countries are deliberating on working with global companies like Oracle, Amazon, and Google and partners such as Tony Blair Initiative for enhanced Regional connectivity.