SciDev.Net

Satellite dishes at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology

KIST / Winne.com

Rwanda has a lot to recover from. Nearly one million people were killed during the 1994 genocide, and educated people were a prime target.

Yet, as Dan Simmons reports, the country has high hopes of using education and training to help it lead Africa into the information age.

Unlike much of the rest of Africa, Rwanda is a small, densely populated country. This makes it much easier to connect different regions with fibre optic cables that can bring telephone, Internet and television services. The aim is to link the five main population centres in this way by the end of 2005.

The country's president, Paul Kagame, says his government would like to make Rwanda "the hub of the region".

In line with this ambition, the country is training large numbers of computer technicians. The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology is offering both three-year degrees and four-month 'fast-track' courses.

For now, the improvements primarily benefit the government and businesses, but by getting schools online and increasing training, the rest of Rwanda's population should benefit too.