Digital illiteracy hinders uptake of online services

Young Rwandan entrepreneurs in ICT develop software at the K-Lab. PHOTO | FILE 

By Johnson Kanamugire

In Summary

• The Rwandan government targets to increase the number of services offered through its online portal, Irembo, from the current nine to 47 by the end of 2016/17, and to 100 by 2018.
• Issues ranging from lack of Internet access, low electrification as well as high levels of digital illiteracy are a barrier to the uptake of the government services put on the World Wide Web.
• Despite efforts invested in expanding Internet infrastructure like the fibre optic network and later the launch of the high-speed 4G LTE Internet, most local government offices are still not connected.

The Rwandan government targets to increase the number of services offered through its online portal, Irembo, from the current nine to 47 by the end of 2016/17, and to 100 by 2018.

The drive is aimed at saving money and time while at the same time increasing efficiency and transparency in the public service delivery, however the government is having challenges in making the online local government service delivery work.

Issues ranging from lack of Internet access, low electrification as well as high levels of digital illiteracy are a barrier to the uptake of the government services put on the World Wide Web.

Most services like the transfer of land titles or registration services, application for driving licence, identity card, visa, passport as well as motor vehicle inspection and banner or billboards permits are all supposed to be transacted online.

In the absence of public ICT hubs in remote and semi-urban areas, a section of digital illiterate citizens and those with no access to devices still incur costs in using privately-run cyber cafés to access government online services.

This implies an additional cost to the specified processing fee for the most sought after services like registration for driving licence tests, requests for criminal record clearance certificate, birth and marriage certificates and others.

Clement Uwajeneza who heads Rwanda Online Platform Ltd, the company running Irembo, said this is the situation in areas where Irembo hasn’t established partnerships.

“We have partnered with people in almost 388 Sectors who give the residence free access to the service on Irembo. In that way, we can mitigate low penetration of gadgets and low level of digital literacy vis-à-vis digital service delivery,” he said.

Despite efforts invested in expanding Internet infrastructure like the fibre optic network and later the launch of the high-speed 4G LTE Internet, most local government offices are still not connected.

Over 250 sector offices are yet to have Internet access along with numerous Cell level offices mainly in the remote areas with no reliable electricity.

This could derail the uptake with expected increase in government services on its one-stop online portal.

Services offered by different government institutions in a variety of sectors namely education, utilities, mining, banking and others are supposed to be accessed online soon.

As a result, huge investment will be needed to make sure that concerns around low Internet usage and digital illiteracy don’t lock out the majority of citizens.

Skilled personnel and adequate IT infrastructure is also needed given the complexity of the services to be delivered and the need to enhance accessibility for citizens.

The Ministry for Youth and ICT, one of the stakeholders jointly endeavouring to deliver on the digital service delivery target, along with Rwanda Development Board and Ministry of Local Government, argued that all the issues were taken into account.

Minister Jean Philbert Nsengimana could however not give specific timelines and estimation of budget needed to address the challenges.

The 2016/17 joint Imihigo (performance contract) on service delivery indicates that government will allocate over Rwf1.5 billion in achieving overall citizen satisfaction from 71.1 per cent to 80 per cent in 2017.

The government seeks to inject part of the money into equipping sectors and cells with basic IT infrastructure as well as having at least 1,000 operational Irembo centres with dedicated personnel to assist in online service delivery.

The ICT Ministry, and Local Government are mandated to identify Cells without access to power and connectivity in the drive to boost Internet penetration currently standing at 35 per cent according to the latest figures.