> that info tech will let Africa develop
I agree that ICT will help development massively, but that's Kenya, Uganda, and to a certain extent Tanzania.
ICT makes up around 15% of Kenya's exports and 10% of Uganda's, and they've both been working hard on actually building a both a strong tech industry and a strong financial industry.
Tanzania doesn't have as same a size of tech industry as Kenya or Uganda, but has been investing a massive amount on building that muscle. They also have a fairly decent industrial economy for their relative position as a LDC.
Rwanda just doesn't have a similar base or bureaucrat class as Tanzania or Kenya or Uganda. Also, Rwanda doesn't actually have a tech industry. The handful of tech companies that are even there are Indian and Chinese run MSPs there to help Indian and Chinese conglomerates that temporarily setup shop there.
> I quite liked the concept of being the Singapore of Africa
The only reason you hear about "tech", "Singapore", and "Rwanda" in the same sentence is because they use Racepoint Global, BTP Advisers, and Portland Communicstions as their PR agency [0][1][2]. Racepoint the same company used by YC startups and a couple large public tech firms for PR and image rehabilitation and BTP Advisers has provided concierge image rehabilitation services for troubled countries like Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Qatar, and a couple conglomerates affiliated to Hezbollah. It's used as a case example of PR in MBA programs to this day. Portland Communications is a lobbying firm founded by Tony Blair's special advisors and has been used by Qatar, Israel, Russia, Singapore, Gazprom, Cisco, and Rio Tinto as well as their primary lobbyist in the EU and UK.
[0] - https://store.hbr.org/product/a-public-relations-campaign-fo...
My guess of info tech letting Africa grow is more that they can use it and go on Wikipedia or Youtube for how to fix stuff. I'm not really expecting them to produce much tech themselves. Africa's economic strong area seems more in resources which may be sort of old tech but which has made Australia say quite wealthy.