Exploding Lake, Blood-Laden Drones Spur Rwanda Tech Boom
- Rwanda using technology to help achieve middle-income status
- Economy has grown by an average 7.5% over past 15 years
The KivuWatt methane power facility in lake Kivu.
Photographer: Cyril Ndegeya/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The tiny nation of Rwanda is pursuing a local technological revolution in a bid to transform its largely agrarian society into the equivalent of an African Singapore.
Since President Paul Kagame led his Rwandan Patriotic Front to power in 1994 after a genocide that claimed as many as 800,000 lives and cut economic output in half, the East African nation has pursued policies aimed at encouraging investment in and developing its ICT industry. The goal is for Rwanda to become a middle-income economy by 2020.