Timeline
Status
Contact Person
Ritha Umuhoza
Position
Digital Cluster Coordination & Community Development Division Manager
Location
Telecom House 8 KG 7 St, Kacyiru
Digital Ambassadors Program (DAP)
Contact Person
Ritha Umuhoza
Position
Digital Cluster Coordination & Community Development Division Manager
Location
Telecom House 8 KG 7 St, Kacyiru
Background
The Digital Ambassadors Program (DAP) is an apprenticeship government program led by RISA with the goal of increasing the number of digitally literate citizens and promoting their use of e-services. The program also creates opportunities for the youth to upskill, gain work experience and contribute to the development of their local communities.
Through this program, citizens are trained to navigate smart devices and use e-Government services, access financial services, use digital technology to do business, online safety skills needed to digitally transact and more. This results into the transformation of the citizen livelihoods through basic digital literacy trainings, adoption of e-services and promotion of digital inclusion.
The DAP program is implemented through recruiting ICT skilled youth as apprentices and is open to young graduates from either secondary schools or tertiary institutions.
For effective management, coordination and timely support, there is a digital ambassador coordination team at central level and Digital ambassador supervisors who oversee DAP activities in districts. Digital ambassador supervisors operate at District level and Digital ambassadors at cell level.
Objectives
- Transform rural communities into digitally literate and skilled communities through digital literacy trainings.
- Increase access to information, internet services, ICT infrastructure and different applications for provision of online services.
- Support the efforts of increasing smart device penetration through stimulating demand and empowering citizens with capacity to use smart devices.
- Job creation and increase citizens’ productivity through use of digital solutions.
- Empower youths with digital skills that will enable them to drive digital initiatives, growth and impact.
Target
- In the National Strategy Transformation - 2 (2024-2029), the program aims to achieve universal digital literacy across Rwanda.
Impacts
DAP was launched in September 2017 in Rulindo Districts and started with 50 Digital Ambassadors. There are currently over 2000 active digital ambassadors operating across the country and 60 digital ambassador supervisors.
The Digital ambassadors have trained 3,262,869 citizens across the country from 2017 to 2024.
The program increased the digital literacy rate of Rwanda from less than 10% to 75.2% within 7 years.
Through the Digital Ambassadors Program, various initiatives, programs and projects have been supported in the Health, Education, Agriculture, Trade, Justice and environment sectors.
Digital ambassadors have supported the implementation of different initiatives such as: