The main objective of the ICT Facililty Project is service quality improvement in Rwandan public sector institutions reached through effective use of digital solutions. This supports Rwanda’s Vision 2050 objective of “Accountable and Capable State Institutions”, as evidenced by “Enhanced Service Delivery” and measured by the indicator “Percentage of public services rendered fully online”. This contributes to reaching the overarching goals of “Economic Growth and Prosperity” and “High Quality and Standards of Life for Rwandans”.

The Government of Rwanda (GoR) has prioritized Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major cross-cutting enabler in becoming an upper-middle income country by 2035. Since 2000, Rwanda has made substantial investments in infrastructure, institutions, and policies to increase access to digitally enabled solutions, become a knowledge-based society, and support innovative and efficient service delivery.

Despite Rwanda’s impressive expansion of digital infrastructure and e-government services, Rwanda can further improve government-wide digitization to meet the increased demand for digital services, enhance their quality and accelerate progress towards an advanced digital society.

Some of the challenges include a lack of funding; insufficient digitization across key sectors and services; low user uptake either because of limited awareness of service offerings or due to concerns on data privacy and protection, poor user interfaces, or limited citizen access to services driven partly by low digital literacy; challenges with sustainability of deployed systems; and limited shared systems and services, among others

Rwandan-German Cooperation in the field of Digitalization

GoR thus requires additional funding to fully use digital solutions to improve public sector efficiency, expand access, and promote innovation in service delivery. The Government of Germany through KFW and the GoR therefore agreed to establish and operationalize an ICT Facility (the “Project”) to support and scale up innovative ICT solutions in the public sector in Rwanda.