LIVE FROM MOBILE360 – AFRICA, KIGALI, RWANDA: Rwanda’s ICT and Innovation minister appealed to authorities across Africa to join forces to ease the way towards the continent’s digital transformation and inclusion goals.

Paula Ingabire (pictured) said to open the way to Industry 4.0, there was a need for collaboration across the whole region, including the elimination of barriers brought by international trade rules and bureaucracy in some regions.

“There is a need for us African governments to collaborate and ensure integration of the continent,” Ingabire said. “All these digital technologies that are going to be used to accelerate transformation require us to act together to establish the right parameters that will help us ease and accelerate this digital transformation agenda.

“We need to eliminate barriers to cross-border trade, lift the bureaucratic processes involved that hinder this agenda from coming to a realisation.”

Ingabire added she believed programmes already taking place in Rwanda could be replicated in other countries to widen access to digital services.

Rwanda offers a Digital Ambassador Programme, designed to increase digital literacy and so widen access to government-run services.