The President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, accused African governments and large corporations of assuming that technical expertise is not available in Africa, prefer to support foreign suppliers and prevent the growth of local talent to compete professionally.
Paul Kagame speaking at the opening of the 2018 Einstein Forum (NEF) ceremony, held in Kigali. The president said that a conscious effort is needed to actively seek out and support African experts in the information technology sector.
The president warned that the gender gap that exists in the science and technology sector in Africa needs to be addressed, but added that the issue is not peculiar to the continent. “We cannot afford to leave our women and girls out of the equation. The gender gap in science is a global phenomenon, but that is no reason to accept it as inevitable.
“We do not intend to create an autonomous African science that operates in isolation. That would defeat our objective. We are working to fully connect Africa to the global networks that have been so productive. This is based on the positive climate in our continent regarding the prospects for practical pan-African collaboration ”.
Kagame said that governments are just as guilty as large corporations of technological advances in Africa. We remain focused on the same external suppliers for the solutions, without making every effort to obtain our services here. Does not make sense. We will use the resources we have to give talented African experts the chance to grow and compete professionally ”.
