Kigali — Eighty government IT staff recently completed an intensive six-week training of trainers course in Microsoft Certified Engineer course and in Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum.

The training was conducted by Rwanda Development Board-IT (RDB) in collaboration with Microsoft East and Southern Africa.

In an effort to transform the country into an IT-literate nation, RDB was mandated to implement the National ICT agenda.

It has also continuously embarked on improving human resource development capacity.

According to the Director in charge of ICT Certification and Capacity Sourcing Nadine Mulindahabi, the graduates will be tasked to redeliver of the programme to government employees within their institutions.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the deputy CEO of RDB-IT Nkubito Bakuramutsa said that human capacity development will significantly promote and encourage deployment and utilization of ICTs within the economy and society.

"The government has identified human resource development as one of the critical means to meeting the changing demands of the economy and it is in this regard that we strongly embrace training partnerships with credible IT stakeholders like Microsoft," said Bakuramutsa.

Aimable Rwema one of the trainees said that the programme would play a significant role in transforming the young population by adding value to them.

"Equipping Rwandans especially the young generation with ICT skills and tools will underpin an important role in the country's socio-economic development process," remarked Rwema.

According to the Microsoft representative Chris Mukua, the world continues to focus on the power of technology to change lives and transform business practices.

RDB-IT targets to train 300 government employees in comprehensive Microsoft training on computer applications such as Microsoft Office 2007, suite of products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access); Digital Audio, Video, Photography and Digital technology (internet and world wide web), before this year