 Niger, in sub-Saharan Africa, is the largest country on the continent, with nearly 80% of its territory covered by endless expanses of Sahara sand. It ranks amongst the lowest in the Human Development Index. The basic needs of life lie beyond the reach of most of its citizens, forced to survive against great odds and wrenching deprivation. Human primary health care and basic education are denied to most. Adequate sources of food, nutrition and water are scarce. Piped water is a luxury available to only a very few. Now a new dawn is breaking on the horizon, shining a bright light on the resilience of the Nigerian people. Niger 2.0. The government of Niger, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies have come together to connect villages in Niger, opening a new digital gateway to rural development. Despite extremely low penetration rates of connectivity, minimal broadband coverage and low digital literacy, this ambitious vision envisages the creation of smart, connected villages across rural habitations. It embodies a holistic and cross-sectoral approach to employ digital technologies to achieve the sustainable development goals, encompassing the needs of all segments of society and ensuring no one is left behind. The National Agency for the Information Society, ANSI, is at the forefront. The Nigerian government agencies, such as the Ministry of Health, Education and Agriculture, have coordinated efforts in a so-called whole-of-government approach to achieve the long-term goals of the smart village project. UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNESCO and the International Telecommunication Union, under the one UN umbrella, along with NGOs, such as the Digital Impact Alliance, Université Numerique Francophone Mondiale and Terre des Hommes, are assisting with their expertise and providing both hardware and digital applications. Innovative apps mounted on tablets as plug-and-play solutions have been prepared for distribution in rural communities to introduce and support e-education, e-health and e-agriculture. Digital entrepreneurs and startups, working with young Nigerian software developers and programmers in Yame, under the supervision of ANSI, are busy creating the architecture that forms the backbone for communicating messages to rural areas. SMS alerts and voice messages are sent out to farmers to inform them about agricultural best practices, taking advantage of rising mobile cellular subscriptions. Today, half of Niger's population has a mobile phone. A farmer in Sardore village receives a voice message and advisory related to livestock management. Farmers also receive alerts on prevailing prices and demand for agricultural produce, enabling them to transport their produce on time to market towns and secure preferential returns. Agricultural applications facilitate trade, provide crop calendars based on weather forecasts and encourage the production of food with high nutritional values, including fruit and vegetables. From the start, involving the community in decision making has been part of the overall strategy. Multistakeholder teams of experts have initially taken up two villages, east and west of Yame, focusing on health, education and food security. The team visited the villages to hand over devices, such as tablets, and to train them. Communities in both Sardore and Bogodare villages came together to discuss how they would deal with the devices and services that were being handed to them, including who would be their custodian. During animated debates, they eventually settled on a committee of elders and local leadership. Women may one day take the lead and develop their own activities that would empower them in developing their communities. Following an introduction to the tablets, training sessions are held regularly on how to use the devices and access information. ITU stepped in to provide connectivity via satellite. A local Wi-Fi server links to a microserver with at least 500 gigabytes of storage that is fed with locally appropriate Wikipedia information and regularly updated. SolarPAR is part of the infrastructure. Despite the lack of infrastructure and facilities, children in Niger are enthusiastic students and keen learners. With new tablets, open up new horizons and potential with access to distance education. An innovative talking book, loaded with information available at the top of a finger, makes it an inclusive tool accessible to the community as a whole. It also provides data feedback on its usage for further development. It is user friendly and has found easy acceptability within families. The primary health center is the backbone of welfare services in rural communities. It is the first point of contact between the village community and the health worker. Medical field workers such as nurses are on site to provide guidance to the health worker in the use of telemedicine and e-health services, which is a game changer in community welfare in the rural districts. The health worker uses the tablet as a reference while checking and evaluating the condition of her patients. If she needs to refer the case to a doctor, she can use the tablet, which is embedded with apps such as Skype. The health worker makes a Skype call to seek advice from the doctor at the University Hospital in Nyame. If needed, the patient could be referred to the hospital for treatment where specialists can take charge. Here children are treated for conditions like severe malnutrition, malaria and typhoid. The Niger 2.0 Smartvillage Project has set out to significantly improve the lives of people in rural Niger, achieving clear milestones in meeting sustainable development goals. Starting in little ways and reaching out for significant gains in health, nutrition and education for the population as a whole. ICTs today represent the most powerful catalyst for development that humanity has ever had at its disposal. ITU's ICT for Development Programme in coordination with other UN agencies and the government of Niger has set out to turn the magic ICT key to unlock the doors to a new era of sustainable growth and prosperity in Niger.