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Rwanda: Maraba Coffee Growers Get US$15,000 Tele-Center
Coffee growers in Maraba under the umbrella association Abahuzamugambi, on Friday, July 14 got a tele-center, which will link them to clients both within and outside the country.
Launching the tele-center worth US$ 15000, Prof. Romain Murenzi, the Minister in the President's Office in charge of Scientific Research and Technology, lauded Abahuzamugambi's contribution towards the advancement in ICT, saying it is a major pillar in Rwanda's Vision 2020.
"This tele-center is an indication that Rwanda's Vision 2020's goals have started being realised," Prof Murenzi, told the coffee growers and added: "as the country is developing a knowledge-based economy, this tele-center will help you access information regarding the price of your coffee. Transport costs will no longer hamper the study of market prices."
The Minister also encouraged the farmers to produce quality coffee to compete with major international coffee producers like Brazil.
"Rwandans have grown coffee for more than a hundred years, but the outcome from coffee growing has had a minimal impact on peoples' lives. Now, the logic is to focus on quality before quantity," the Minister stressed.
While Maraba coffee growers and other people in the region now have access to the tele-center, which is equipped with eight laptop computers, electricity cuts , low incomes, limited technical knowledge stand as challenges facing ICT transfer from towns to rural areas.
"This center is going to help me talk to my relatives in Kigali," said Gaspard Kavumbutsi, a 60 year-old resident of Maraba.
Kavumbutsi said the Maraba telecenter is a better communication system than Tuvugane phones, because it involves computer systems. "He who is lucky enough to access it will also get basic computer knowledge," he said.
Four females from the Maraba Coffee Growers' Association were awarded certificates, after undergoing tele-center management basics taught by Washington State University students doing their internship with the PEARL project.
"This is a good and ambitious government policy, but its sustainability will always depend on donors' wishes because of the cost of infrastructure development," said a National University of Rwanda ICT expert.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), National University of Rwanda and Washington State University provided both the financial and technical assistance needed to build the Maraba Vision Tele-center.
Ryan Washburn, USAID's team leader in charge of Agriculture and Rural Enterprise Development exalted Maraba coffee growers' impressive growth.
"You have been successful, that is why we decided to fund this tele-center business project," Washburn said.
Maraba Vision tele-center is expected to generate approximately Frw.358,000 annually from telephone calls, printing, CD burning, text processing, movie screening and photocopying.
Through SKYPE, an Internet phone service, the Maraba Vision tele-center will help local users communicate with people in distant places through telephone and internet services.
Prof. Silas Mureramanzi, the Vice-Rector in charge of Academic Affairs and Research at the National University of Rwanda promised a further provision of ICT-related expertise to Maraba Vision Tele-center using varsity lecturers and students.
Several representatives of Rwanda's telecommunications giants, notably Terracom, Mobile Telecommunication Networks (MTN), as well as officials from Rwanda Information and Technology Agency (RITA) attended the function.
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