The equipment worth Frw 35 million, which included 30 desk tops, 5 laptops, projectors, projector screens, and 5 digital cameras, will be used to equip the business development centers (BDCs).

Telecenters can bring IT to businesspeople in rural areas. (file photo)

About 90% of the private sector consists of small and medium enterprises most of which are based in rural areas with little or no computer knowledge, leave alone using IT to improve their business. For this reason, PSF considers the use of IT in promoting and enhancing business development as fundamental.

But the business community needs to be encouraged and supported. As Emmanuel Hategeka, the CEO of PSF, put it, “the notion of ‘leave it to the business community to do it themselves’ does not hold.”

He indicated that BDCs had been given strict technical mandate to provide entrepreneurs with training on how to use ICT tools to develop their businesses, and make available business-related information. Furthermore, BDCs are to provide training in market research and other basic operations such as the use of e-mail.

“We have instructed all BDC managers to set up a room that is fully equipped to facilitate trainings of entrepreneurs,” Hategeka declared.

He also pledged more support to help the business community to fully utilize the advantages of IT. For instance, once the BDC’s have been fully equipped, PSF plans to expand its program into areas that have no access to internet and electricity. To this end, two ICT vans which will also be donated by RDB/IT will be deployed to bring internet services to remote rural areas.

“Once people in rural areas get interested in the use of internet, they will start accessing Telecenters and BDS’s,” Hategeka noted.

Hategeka lauded the role played by RDB/IT in ICT proliferation in the country, saying that the business community should benefit and that the support from RDB/IT will ensure that IT will be widely used by entrepreneurs.

While this is the first time RDB/IT supports the private sector through provision of IT equipment, Wilson Muyenzi, the director of e-government pointed out that more support to the private sector was in the pipeline. “This is just the beginning of our support to the private sector and we are committed to fully meet our obligations of the MoU,” Muyenzi said.

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