Nyaruguru district: Over 180 young people receive computer literacy certificates

A total of 187 young people (aged between 14 and 35) –  67 girls and 120 boys – from Munini sector in Nyaruguru district, Southern Rwanda, were, on Friday, awarded computer literacy certificates after a one month training workshop in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies).

The ICT training workshop administered by the Rwanda branch of DOT (Digital Opportunity Trust), a Canadian NGO, has focused on a number of computer programmes like Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point, plus social welfare and the study of the market. All of them geared towards building confidence, professionalism, market knowledge, team work spirit, commitment to excellence and project management, DOT officials said.

“I have been teaching them ICT as a tool of business, how to study a project and how they can advertise their business through the internet”, Violette Tuyisenge, a DOT facilitator in Munini sector, put it straightforward.

And the trainees are already upbeat and hope to reap a lot from their skills.

“At [high] school, we had a course on ICT but we were taking the course only twice a week. All I knew was basically how to turn on and turn off a computer”, recalls 23 year-old Claire Uwamahoro, a resident of Ngarurira cell in Munini sector, who has completed high school education in accountancy.

“Thanks to the training, I have known programmes like Word, Excel and Power Point and I’m planning to start up a business of typing with a computer for people in my area”, she added, saying such a business would be the first of its kind in her area.

Charles Byaruhanga, 27, is equally optimistic.

“I have learnt how to study a bankable project and I’m hoping to work with banks and get a loan to begin a business of buying and selling some crops like beans”, said Byaruhanga, a resident of Ntwali cell, still in Munini sector, who dropped out of high school when he was still in the third year.

Fabien Niyitegeka, Nyaruguru district’s Vice Mayor in charge of Finance, Economy and Development, thanked DOT Rwanda “for teaching how to create jobs”.

According to Vice Mayor Niyitegeka, 1.1 per cent of the district’s 293,000 population are computer literate – a figure both Nyaruguru district and DOT officials vowed to have risen to 50 per cent in the next five years for all people aged 15 and beyond.

“ICT is key to development and our aim is to enable all Rwandans to know, use and have access to ICT”, said Jean Claude Ndayambaje, country running specialist at DOT Rwanda.

DOT Rwanda started in Nyaruguru district in December 2012 and already has training centers in Munini and Nyagisozi − two of Nyaruguru’s 14 sectors – where it has so far trained 374 young people in ICT.

DOT began in Rwanda in 2010 and already operates in a number of East African countries like Uganda, Tanzania and in Ethiopia.

In Rwanda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and ICT, the Ministry of Local Government, Rwanda Education Board and Rwanda Development Board, DOT has, to date, trained about 27,000 young people in ICT.