Rwanda: Regional ICT Hub

Rwanda government plans to lay 2 300 km of fibre optic cable between February and September 2009 to deploy a national backbone network connecting 35 nodes across the country and 350 sites. Rwanda currently accesses internet through satellite connections at USD 3 000 Mbps/month. The price is expected to drop to USD 25 Mbps/month once the national grid is connected with the future submarine fibre optic cables on the east coast. A 135 km network has already been deployed in Kigali at a cost of USD 5 million. Private sector operators are also contributing to ICT development. The development of Kigali ICT Park, which comprises three components, namely: Established ICT companies, Incubated companies (ICT startups) and a Multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence in ICT (MCE-ICT), is one such example. Rwanda is expecting to position itself as a regional ICT hub.

Source: Rwanda’s 2009 African Economic Outlook country note and author.

Morocco's example


Jean-Philippe Stijns, co-author of the "Public Resource Mobilisation" study, highlights Morocco's practices while observing their taxation policies.

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