Rwanda's efforts to showcase the role of Information and Communications Technology as a driver of the East African nation's development have been recognised by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

According to the 2015 Global Information Technology Report (GITR) the East African nation was ranked first in government success in ICT promotion to drive social and economic transformation.

The report was compiled by WEF and features the Networked Readiness Index, which assesses the factors, policies and institutions that enable countries to leverage ICT.

Government success in ICT promotion is one of several sub-indexes of the GITR index, and Rwanda took first place having scored 6.2 points out of 7.

Rwanda's minister of youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana commented, "Rwanda continues to be one of the fastest growing African countries in ICT and there are several avenues for growth for the ICT sector – from e-commerce and e-services, mobile technologies, applications development and automation to becoming a regional centre for the training of top quality ICT professionals and research. A robust ICT industry creates wealth, jobs and entrepreneurs."

Nsengimana added, "New developments include K-Lab, a youth innovation hub, Think a technology hub in Kigali, Rwanda Media Hub, The Office and YouthConnekt, which connects the youth to role models, resources, skills and employment opportunities... Many young Rwandans have turned their ideas into innovative companies. Many are starting a business when they graduate from university."

Over the last couple of years Rwanda has been on a road towards connecting, innovating and transforming the country's agriculture driven economy to an information-rich and knowledge-based economy and society.

ICT contributed 2% to Rwanda's gross domestic product (GDP) over two quarters in 2014, according to the ministry.