The government of Rwanda has committed to the One Laptop Per Child initiative, saying on Wednesday that it will provide a system to all primary school children within five years.

This commitment was confirmed as H.E. President Paul Kagame met with Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairperson of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) at Urugwiro village on Tuesday.

As part of its stated vision of transforming Rwanda into a knowledge-based economy by the year 2020, the government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Education, and the Minister of Science and Technology and Research in the President's Office will collaborate with the OLPC non-profit association to realize the project.

Negroponte, who is also the co-founder of the MIT Media Laboratory, aims for the OLPC program to bring inexpensive computing to children in undeveloped and developing nations around the world.

Its job, in part, is to educate by granting students access to the Internet and its vast store of information

The machines, when fully ready, will likely be introduced in Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Thailand and other parts of the Middle East and Africa.

Rwanda