Theofrida Muginga, a finalist at University of Rwanda, developed Mkulima CHATGPT, an Artificial Intelligence solution used to support smallholder farmers in the early detection and diagnosis of crop diseases.

What stands out in ‘Mkulima GPT’ is great commitment to local languages and an ambitious goal of extension services for more and more African Languages. For ease of access, ‘Mkulima GPT’ established online presence through their dedicated website and a WhatsApp hotline where farmers can seek assistance to an array of problems including farm preparation, maize disease management as well as post-harvest procedures.

American entrepreneur Mike De'Shazer explained how he used AI to get farmland in Rwanda, precisely showing how AI made all Rwandan services accessible online.

Rwanda is doing more in leveraging AI for development.

Among being the first four countries in Africa that developed an AI policy, Rwanda is now hosting the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well thanks to collaboration between the government through the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, and the World Economic Forum.

This is one of the few centres operating across the world committed to work towards promoting new technologies including AI, machine learning, blockchain and internet of things (IoT). These are technologies that develop and change the way the world conducts business in political, social and economic spheres at the same time putting an open challenge to policymakers.

For instance, UAVs, commonly known as drones, supply blood in rural hospitals and healthcare centres in Rwanda, while a company like Babyl enables people to consult three doctors through a mobile phone.

On the other hand, Blockbonds enables smartphone users to transact and even pay for goods and services using blockchain technology.

All of this is happening in an environment where, previously, doing things the old way incurred time, money and cost lives, considering the huge hustles of transporting blood to a patient in far-flung remote areas.

The technology is borderless and by Rwanda positioning itself as an AI hub, it means that whatever will be started in Rwanda will be rolled out throughout the continent hence making the entire Africa benefit from the efforts of Rwanda towards leveraging AI.

Time has come for Africa to stop playing catch-up on tech revolution and move to the forefront. In that effort, during the Transform Africa Summit of April 2023 held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, President Paul Kagame called on African leaders and captains of tech industry to move fast and embrace AI in a manner that it works for Africa.

Already, many of the new quality jobs being created in Africa are powered by technology and connectivity. InstaDeep – a tech start-up that was acquired by BionTech – will soon launch an office in Rwanda to research AI, on the continent.

The decision to select Rwanda as the AI research center was based on the fact that Rwanda emerged as a leader in building the economy of the future.

The research finding from InstaDeep will help African countries grow their tech sectors.

Rwanda is ranked among 10 countries in Africa making progress towards attaining AI readiness.

The Rwanda Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution together with United Arab Emirates Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (the UAE C4IR) on January 18, launched the C4IR AI Fellowship Program as a platform that will bridge the gap between the industry leaders in AI the innovators, and experts across the globe.

In addition, more centers across the globe will be expected to take part in the programme for a possible creation of an AI global interconnected community of practitioners.

The continent looks forward not just from the sharing of the knowledge but also altogether addressing the challenges AI implementation and policy are currently facing, eventually steering us into the future direction of AI towards a more inclusive and sustainable world.

It also aims at providing customized sessions on AI applications, research, and developments with a special focus on the specific expertise of each single participating centre. This means that the faster Rwanda positions itself as an AI hub, the more Africa is bound to benefit from the skills, knowledge and resources that will come from Rwanda.