Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju, the recently appointed Minister for Sports, has insisted that detecting and developing talents at an early age is one of her priorities.

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This was said on Monday during a meeting between Minisports and sports journalists. 

The commitment to focus on young talents comes a month after the splitting of the former Ministry of Sports and Culture that saw the culture docket moved to the Ministry of Youth, leaving sports as the sole duty of Minisports.

"One of our main priorities going forward is talent detection and development in both primary and secondary schools,” said Munyangaju.

"This will instill the passion for sports in young people, and even inspire them to reach professional levels in their sport of choice when they grow up.”

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She also noted that following up on existing programmes will be done.

There are many good initiatives that have been going on, but due to lack of monitoring and close evaluation they end up being unproductive. We want to make sure that we correct that, she said.

Underlying challenges

Jimmy Gihana, is a sports teacher in Lycée de Kigali, he told Times Sport that lack of infrastructure still hinders early talent development.

"Talents are there but there is no way they can develop when we have no infrastructure,” he said.

"This is a challenge to most of the coaches who would have used holidays as an opportunity to train children in different sports,” he added.

On this issue, Munyangaju said that the Ministry is aware.

"It’s evident that these infrastructure are not enough. But we are looking for partners whom we’ll work together to establish improved sports infrastructure in both schools and communities,” she said.

Gihana also noted that: "Some leaders of schools have to put efforts in promoting sports, because there are schools where children can’t even find balls to play – a hindrance to the early talent development we need.”

Aaron Rurangirwa, the Technical Director of Rwanda School Sports Federation (RSSF), highlighted that there is also need for close collaboration between schools and sports federations.

"Training camps for young talents have been in place for years, but lack of follow up has always been the biggest challenge. This is something we can commit to with other federations.”