Rwanda aims to collect 1M smartphones for poor families

KIGALI, Rwanda 

Rwanda has launched a campaign to collect 1 million smartphones through donations to be distributed to poor families across the country.

The campaign — dubbed Connect Rwanda, which will run until March this year — aims to increase Rwanda’s smartphone penetration, which is currently below 20%, according to officials.

Statistics from the Ministry of ICT and Innovation show that out of the 10 million Rwandans who have mobile phones, only around 1.6 million own smartphones.

“The Connect Rwanda campaign is aimed at increasing smartphone ownership in the country. To date, phone penetration stands at 79.8%, but smartphone penetration

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