Kagame was speaking on Wednesday, February 5 at the opening of the inaugural Africa Drone Forum at the Kigali Convention Centre convening over 800 stakeholders from 44 countries.
The President said that as Rwanda and African countries move to adopt the use of drone technology, there should be considerations to design and manufacture Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the continent.
He said, this will see the gadgets tailored to address specific needs in African countries within the local and regional context.
When drones are designed and manufactured elsewhere, there is a likelihood that they are tailored to address the situations in their countries of manufacture.
Why limit ourselves to just using drones? We can also design and manufacture drones in Africa, as demonstrated by examples at this forum. This allows the technology to be tailored to our specific needs, and to help create new industries that generate employment and prosperity.
Rwanda is in the process of developing a drone operation centre that will serve to develop the uptake, training and regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles.
The President made a case for continued adoption of drone technology saying that Rwanda was already experiencing benefits of the technology as the country moves towards fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
Drones have been adopted in Rwanda in a variety of fields including delivery of blood products and vaccines to remote health centres.
The first made in Rwanda drones are also used in the inspection of agriculture projects, inspection of power lines, aerial mapping of land and most recently in mosquito spraying.
This article first appeared in The News Time
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