The role of telecentres in promoting socio-economic development in Rwanda.
Date
2013-02-21
Authors
Buhigiro, Seth
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Abstract
Telecentres are an important tool for promoting socio-economic development in areas with
very low levels of e-access. They have the potential to offer benefits to rural communities in
education, health, agriculture and business. The purpose of this study was to explore the
strengths and weaknesses of telecentres in promoting specific socio-economic objectives
set in Rwanda’s National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI II) plan 2006 -
2010. The findings were that telecentres have been effective in contributing to community
development through access to information, skills development, job creation, study
opportunities, low cost in telecentre services and increased income. The three main
challenges that hinder rural communities from advanced e-access were found to be literacy
and level of education, language barriers, and lack of skills and awareness. Future policy
requires comprehensive guidelines to guide the deployment of rich local content in
telecentres that will enable more effective use of these facilities to promote socio-economic
development through e-Soko type projects, Umuganda activities and other community or egovernment
initiatives.
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Keywords
Telecommunication centres, Community development, Rwanda, e-government policy