{The government plans to introduce a programme, which will subsidise cost of smart devices to increase their usage. The target is to reduce the cost to less than Rwf69,045 }
In particular, the government is considering working with banks to buy smart devices payable in installments for 12 months. In addition, they are also exploring a possibility of initiating tax incentives to low end smart phone dealers.
The government also plans to offer incentives to phone manufacturing companies to set up shop locally to ensure affordability. This is expected to facilitate data penetration across the country that currently stands at just approximately 25 per cent largely driven by increased access to mobile phones.
Rwanda’s mobile penetration is estimated at 69 per cent.
“The goal is to increase the number of smartphone users such that more people can use Internet, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (Rura) will come in to ensure universal access especially with the low-end smartphone users,” said Patrick Nyirishema director-general of Rura.
“It is a multi-stakeholder type of approach, a number of issues will have to be factored in, smartphone dealers, the financing side, this will not be a once off, but an ongoing effort” he said.
Despite government’s investment in laying in the ground over 4,500 km of fibre optics across the country and rolling out 4G LTE Internet, Internet connectivity especially in the rural areas has remained low. This is attributed to high digital illiteracy levels among rural population.
Didier Nkurikiyimfura, director-general in charge of ICT at the Ministry of Youth and ICT, said the campaign will be launched early next year.
“We want phone users to go beyond feature phones to smartphones. We are taking a broader approach, for instance, we are working with banks to see that they facilitate people to own smartphones payable in installments in 12 months.
“We are also exploring other avenues like tax incentives on smart devices, which will go along way to reduce prices, some haven’t matured but everything will be in motion by the time we launch,” said Mr Nkurikiyimfura.
The focus, he said, is for the general population to have access to affordable mobile phones.
“We want to start by focusing on the cheaper devices, there are those below $100, these are affordable to the masses, we believe this initiative will contribute a lot,” he added.
Rwanda is targeting 60 per cent of the population to be connected to Internet by 2018. Government recently signed a deal with a major smart Latin American device maker Positivo BGH to start manufacturing and assembling smartphones and other devices in Rwanda as a way of availing affordable devices to the Rwandan market.
The company, which will start operations in May next year, expects to make over 700,000 devices in the first year.
The East African
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