Over the past one year the government has signed a number of agreements with exporters, institutions and co-operatives, committing to support the private sector increase the country’s export volumes and value. 

It has also pledged to put in place the infrastructure required to improve output and ensure quality along the value chain, as well as link firms to markets. 

This followed last year’s resolution at the annual national leadership retreat where government agreed to work more closely with the private sector to stimulate export sector growth. These are part of efforts geared at increasing exports by 28 per cent by the year 2018 as envisaged by the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II). However, more needs to be done by the private sector, government and other stakeholders to achieve this objective.

Already, SMEs and other exporters are crying out for help to access appropriate packaging materials for their products, saying poor packaging is costing ‘Made in Rwanda’ goods badly needed market. Research has shown that right packaging is a key sale factor for any product, making it essential for local producers to prioritise packaging and branding in their marketing strategies if they are to become competitive.

As the Minister for Trade and Industry, Francois Kanimba, said on Monday, one may have a good product but fails to get market because of poor packaging. The minister’s pledge to have "efficient packaging materials produced locally in the near future” should be supported by the private sector and other stakeholders.

This is one of the areas where the PPP investment model promoted by the government can be applied to deliver faster results. Also, other issues like product certification should be addressed as export products are expected to adhere to international standards. This requires having in place qualified personnel; exporters say there is still a skills gap that affects their chance to trade with some countries.

However, the private sector should become more proactive and put in place initiatives that will solve some of the challenges they face, such as sponsoring some of their staff to go for refresher courses to acquire necessary skills. Such interventions will help prop up the country’s export value which dropped to $275.28 million (about Rwf206.5 billion) in the first half of 2015, from $293.61 million in 2014.