KIGALI, Rwanda, Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Under the theme "Digitising Rwanda" the second edition of SMART Days Rwanda will take place in Kigali, Serena Hotel on 2-3 October 2014, as the country prepares to embark on the last five years of the 2020 vision and re-doubles efforts to achieve the transformation into a knowledge-based economy and society.
Over 400 attendees, including ICT experts from across the world, policy makers, development partners and young innovators are expected. Smart Rwanda Days will also host a Steering Committee meeting of Smart Africa Alliance, an initiative that was born in Rwanda during the TransformAfrica Summit in October last year.
The gathering aims at stimulating the debate on how Rwanda and Africa at large can leverage ICT to accelerate economic growth and competitiveness.
Keynote speakers at the conference will include President Paul Kagame and Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The conference will also feature high-level panel discussions on Digital Payments, Internet Governance, Internet Economy, Open Data, Content Localisation, Digital Innovation among others.
Rwanda's Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, said SMART Rwanda Days provides a unique platform for participants to consider the contribution of ICT sector towards national development and renew strategies and partnerships to transform the country to a knowledge based economy by 2020.
"SMART Rwanda Days sends a signal to all the actors in the development arena to check how "Smart" they are in their respective domains. The focus remains on the role of innovation in transforming Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, Government Service Delivery and Business in general, especially Financial Services".
Minister Nsengimana highlighted that "For the Smart Rwanda Days specifically this year we chose 'Digitising Rwanda' as a theme, in recognition of the fact that Africa's digital economies are growing faster than traditional sectors and the potential for an even bigger contribution to national GDPs is yet to be unleashed".
In Rwanda, ICT contributes 2% to GDP, ahead of agriculture and mining. In terms of foreign direct investments, the ICT sector attracts 45% of the total in-flows, more than the next 5 sectors combined, including trade, finance, mining and manufacturing. A recent study revealed that ICT contributes 3.7% in advanced economies whereas in Africa, ICT contribution to GDP is at 1.1% on average.
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