Covering areas that have been ignored by economic operators is the added value of PAFEN, the Support Project for Digital Economy Foundations, which will be operational from January 2023. This good news was announced by the Minister of Communication, Information Technology and Media Saturday, November 19, 2022 on the sidelines of a plenary session held as part of the extraordinary session convened over the period from 14 to 25 November 2022 by the Head of State.

The agenda of the session was "the analysis of the bill on the ratification by the Republic of Burundi of the IDA grant agreement No. E0930- BI between the Republic of Burundi and the International Development Association (IDA) in favor of the Support Project for Digital Economy Foundations (PAFEN) signed in Bujumbura on September 1, 2022. "This bill was finally adopted unanimously by the MPs present.
According to Mrs. Léocadie Ndacayisaba, the goal of developing PAFEN is to increase access to high-speed internet, particularly for underserved populations, and to improve the Government’s capacity to deliver public services digitally.

Special attention, she continued, will be directed to reducing the digital divide, ensuring that Burundi’s rural communities, women and girls, and vulnerable groups which are connected but currently underserved and/or thus facing greater barriers to access.

The focus, she added, will be on people with disabilities, indigenous groups, and rural communities particularly affected by climate change facing greater barriers to access digitalization and whereas they could benefit from expanded key digital services.

With longevity of five years, PAFEN will certainly leave indelible marks including infrastructure and beneficiaries of eventual training that will share experiences with snowballing, reassured the envoy of the Government as to reassure the plenary that doubted the complete disappearance of the project at its end, as they used to witness this kind of phenomena.

A glimmer of hope already points to the horizon as for the harmonization with the other EAC countries as regards the supply of an identical digital flow and at the same rate.