During the 9th Board meeting of the Smart Africa Alliance chaired by President Paul Kagame on December 7, 2020, the Board endorsed the GIGA initiative and approved for Smart Africa to participate and work with the main stakeholders (ITU, UNICEF, Government Officials among others) for the smooth implementation of GIGA in Africa.
GIGA is a UNICEF-ITU global initiative to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.
Launched in 2019, GIGA sets the goal of providing connectivity to every school in the world.
Following the approval and endorsement of the Smart Africa Board for GIGA implementation in Africa, and as part of the support of the ongoing Rwanda GIGA pilot project, Smart Africa Secretariat has donated 105 laptop computers to the Rwanda Ministry of Information Communications Technology and Innovation.
These laptop computers will be given to some selected teachers in schools that are under the Rwanda GIGA pilot project.
The donation of these laptop computers had funding support from one of the Smart Africa partner organizations, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
Making the presentation to the Minister of Information Communications Technology and Innovation at the sidelines of the Smart Africa Extra-Ordinary Steering Committee Meeting in Kigali, the Director General and CEO of Smart Africa, Lacina Koné, reiterated Smart Africa’s commitment to supporting the successful implementation of Giga in Africa, particularly within the Smart Africa Member States by not only focusing on connecting the schools, but by also supporting on providing skills to teachers and students through the Smart Africa digital academy and devices as has been done with Rwanda.
The Minister of Information Communications Technology and Innovation of Rwanda, Hon. Paula Ingabire, who received the laptops on behalf of the Rwanda Giga pilot project, on her part thanked Smart Africa for the support and added that the laptops were going to enhance the effectiveness of teachers who were going to benefit from the laptops.