Internet access for Rwandans will soon expand to the most remote rural areas under a new initiative that will see mobile Internet cafes tour the country.

Two ICT buses have arrived in the country last week through the e-Rwanda Project, with the aim of providing Internet access and business training to farmers, students, entrepreneurs and other people in rural areas.

Wilson Muyenzi, the coordinator of the eRwanda Project for the Rwanda Development Board, said the goal of the mobile telecenters is to reach people who have been under-served in terms of lack of electricity and other infrastructure.

“We’re trying to bridge the internal digital divide,” he said. “We don’t want to leave rural-based Rwandans behind.”

Each bus contains 20 computers connected to the Internet, equipment such as printers and scanners, and a generator to provide electricity. The mobile units will also be staffed with someone to provide assistance and computer training. For the first six months the service will be free of charge to spark interest among rural residents. After that, a small fee will be introduced.

The ICT bus pilot project will be launched at Expo 2009. In August, the buses will be sent to two districts and will then move from sector to sector.

The traveling telecenters will be stationed at schools and markets on specific days to provide Internet access, and will be based in communities for a minimum of one week to train entrepreneurs of small and medium sized businesses.

“The idea is to essentially introduce technology into the way they do business,” Muyenzi said. “That will definitely increase their productivity and efficiency.”

After the initial pilot project, another two ICT buses are to be introduced by the end of the year, with a long-term target of having six buses up and running.

E-Soko and telemedicine

The project is one of several rural ICT initiatives, such as the 12 telecenters that have been constructed; E-Rwanda is equipping another 18 so that by the end of next month, there will be one center in every district. The ultimate goal, according to Muyenzi, is to have a telecenter in every sector.

“While we wait for every sector to have a telecenter, these buses will be filling that gap, at least for a few districts,” he said.

Muyenzi hopes the ICT buses will successfully expand on other government ICT initiatives, such as the One Laptop Per Child program and the Rwanda Beehive project, which provides rural Rwandans with information on health, micro-financing and other issues.

E-Rwanda has other ICT initiatives aimed at improving computer literacy and digital access for rural communities. The e-Soko project, for instance, is designed to help farmers access agricultural and commodity prices from major markets around the country through the Internet or their mobile phone. Next month, the department will be piloting a telemedicine project to help specialists in Kigali remotely diagnose patients at rural hospitals.

Muyenzi said that despite all these projects, rural Rwandans are still lagging behind in computer literacy due to the lack of electricity in many areas. He hopes the ICT buses will be a way to address this digital divide.

“The government has a lot of projects and a lot of support that is available through the donors and a lot of political will,” he said. “But [lack of] electricity is hindering the promise of these projects. So with a project like the ICT bus, we should be able to get rid of that problem, and get ICT even without electricity. I think that’s very powerful.”

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