Submission + - Rwanda Tech Boom Might Be Around Corner
jones_supa writes: The tiny nation of Rwanda is pursuing a local technological revolution in a bid to transform its largely agrarian society into the equivalent of an African Singapore. After a genocide claimed as many as 800,000 lives and cut economic output in half, President Paul Kagame has led his Rwandan Patriotic Front to power in 1994, and the nation has invested in its ICT industry. The goal is for Rwanda to become a middle-income economy by 2020. The latest innovation was unveiled this week when the nation officially opened a methane-fired power plant on Lake Kivu to generate clean energy. The government's commitment to technological innovation has helped double the industry's contribution to the 1.53 trillion-franc ($1.97 billion) economy. The country has rolled out a national high-speed fiber-optic backbone in all 30 districts, while 4G LTE extends to 14 districts with plans to cover 95% of the population by 2017. During last week's World Economic Forum on Africa, which Rwanda hosted, the government announced plans for an "innovation city" in Kigali that will seek to attract and house technology companies and institutions to promote digital transformation in the country.