{"id":20627,"date":"2022-06-24T16:16:33","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T16:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire"},"modified":"2022-06-24T17:30:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T17:30:30","slug":"policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire","title":{"rendered":"Policy changes are required to connect the unconnected, says Minister Ingabire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Policymakers need to change how they are doing things to address the rampant challenge of the digitally unconnected people, Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation, said on Wednesday, June 22.<\/p>\n

She was speaking during a panel discussion on \u201cBridging the Digital Divide\u201d as part of the Commonwealth Business Forum that attracted more than 1,000 delegates in Kigali.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one third of population that remains unconnected is probably the most difficult to connect. All the policies, all the regulations, all the business models and financing that has worked to connect 4.9 billion, perhaps are not going to be a good fit to connect the remaining 2.9 billion people,\u201d Ingabire noted.<\/p>\n

When one talks about disruption, she said, \u201cit\u2019s going to require that even us, as policymakers, we change how we are doing things because, clearly, the same policies and regulations we are using, if they haven\u2019t helped us to connect the remaining unconnected, it\u2019s already a question mark for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that just scaling what has already been done is actually going to give us the much needed traction on what we need to close the gap,\u201d Ingabire emphasized.<\/p>\n

The digital divide and gender gap in access to broadband are characterized mainly by lack of digital literacy as well as access to digital devices.<\/p>\n

According to the State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report of 2021, in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 28 per cent of the population are connected to broadband, 19 per cent are not covered with mobile internet and the usage gap is as high as 53 per cent. This is mainly due to limited affordability.<\/p>\n

To achieve a cashless economy, the minister said, Rwanda realized, early, that a strategy to drive cashless in small and medium enterprises and retailers\u2019 industries \u2018inevitably\u2019 was not going to work for the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

Ralph Mupita, President and CEO of MTN Group, told governments that the required capital to connect those who are not connected is available but they request a regulatory regime that provides certainty for long-term capital to invest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we would then commit to bring down the cost of accessing the internet on a glide path that is agreed on a multi-year basis and you will be surprised by how quickly we move to be able to close the gap,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In the recently concluded World Telecommunication Development Conference, Rwanda committed to increase digital access and inclusion through investment in key enablers, focusing on underserved areas and groups.<\/p>\n

The envisaged interventions include support for smart device affordability, financing schemes, as well as local connectivity access schemes targeting unconnected government offices, schools, hospitals, and public areas.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Policymakers need to change how they are doing things to address the rampant challenge of the digitally unconnected people, Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation, said on Wednesday, June 22. She was speaking during a panel discussion on \u201cBridging the Digital Divide\u201d as part of the Commonwealth Business Forum that attracted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-20627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nPolicy changes are required to connect the unconnected, says Minister Ingabire - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Policymakers need to change how they are doing things to address the rampant challenge of the digitally unconnected peop ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Policy changes are required to connect the unconnected, says Minister Ingabire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Policymakers need to change how they are doing things to address the rampant challenge of the digitally unconnected peop ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-24T16:16:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-24T17:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_1-62b5f48e223c5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Policy changes are required to connect the unconnected, says Minister Ingabire\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-24T16:16:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-24T17:30:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_1-62b5f48e223c5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/policy\/policy-changes-are-required-to-connect-the-unconnected-says-minister-ingabire\",\"name\":\"Policy changes are required to connect the unconnected, says Minister Ingabire - 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