As part of the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed between the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and the Private Sector Federation (PSF), the board’s Information Technology arm RDB/IT yesterday handed over IT equipment worth Rwf 35 million to the Private Sector Federation’s Business Development Service Centres (BDS).

The IT equipment which was handed over at a ceremony held at Telecom House includes 30 desktops, five laptops, projectors, projector screens and cameras.

According to Emmanuel Hategeka, the CEO, PSF, the equipment will help in networking the BDS’s that were established to train small business enterprises around the country.

"We have a network of RBS’s which have a mandate of training small businesses, and this equipment will be instrumental in helping their networking which had remained a challenge, said Hategeka.

He added that 90 percent of businesses in the country are the small enterprises which still take IT as a luxury rather than a business tool.

"We want to ensure that all businesses are able to use ICT in their operations,” he said.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, the CEO of RDB-IT Bakuramutsa Nkubito said that the equipment would help in empowering businesses in rural areas which constitute over 70 percent of the private sector.

"We still have other projects like the ICT buses which will help reach areas with no infrastructures, the establishment of ICT portal and capacity building.

Hategeka says that the ICT buses project will see rural areas taught how to use IT in their business which will boost the clientele of the telecentres.

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