Increasing inspectors at Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority will fix the gap in food safety monitoring among nearly 1,000 factories in the food sector across the country.

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In a phone interview with The New Times, Director General of RFDA, Emile Bienvenu, made the comment after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame, on April 3, at Urugwiro Village, approved several appointments at Rwanda FDA.

"We have 988 factories in the food sector across the country that were being inspected by not more than six workers. As the number of inspectors increases, they boost service delivery. If someone was getting a service in two months, they would get it in a shorter time,” he said.

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According to the Auditor General’s report for the financial year that ended on June 30, 2022, Rwanda FDA fell short of 110 required safety inspections that Rwanda FDA had planned to conduct.

In 2023, the food safety monitoring at the agency was still understaffed – with only two workers (inspectors).

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Bienvenu said that the new appointments and recruitment to fix understaffing are part of a new structure as the previous structure had gaps.

In 2018, the Government of Rwanda established the Rwanda FDA with the core mandate of protecting public health by regulating processed food, and human and veterinary medicines, among others.

"After identifying the gaps, we got a new structure which was gazetted in August 2023. The new structure is closing the gaps in terms of positions. That was the first phase. The second phase was to fill gaps in positions and the appointments by the cabinet on Wednesday is part of this phase. Half of them are new while others were reappointed,” he explained.

He said that the appointments made on Wednesday were mainly department heads and division managers.

"These appointments unlock the next step to recruit other staff. Other staff such as analysts will be appointed by the cabinet soon. Other staff will be recruited through a competitive process as part of the third phase,” he said.