The central bank has renewed its call for commercial banks to offer credit facilities to miners to boost their production and increase foreign exchange. John Rwangombwa, the governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, made the call while speaking to The New Times, on Saturday, after touring Gifurwe Wolfram Mining and Processing in Burera District. The visit aimed at understanding firsthand how miners operate and challenges they face in their work. “We need to visit mines and see what is happening, know the challenges they face instead of having figures in books. We recently had a meeting with miners and one of the problems they cited was financing for their activities, coming here will help us understand better (the challenges) and advocate for them to access bank loans,” Rwangombwa said. The governor noted that once miners are facilitated with bank loans, their produce would increase. He committed to engage banks on the need to offer more loans to support the growth of the mining industry. Jean-Malic Kalima, the managing director of Wolfram Mining and Processing Ltd, said lack of loans affects the sector. Kalima, who is also a representative of the Rwanda Mining Association (RMA), said banks are reluctant to offer loans to the mining sector as they consider it risky. “The mining industry is not as risky as banks perceive; they should open doors for associations to acquire loans if the sector is to fully contribute to national development through foreign exchange,” he said. “Banks should consider ways of offering long-term loans at low interest rates as mining takes longer to generate profit.” Gifurwe mining produces between nine and 13 tonnes per month but officials say it is working below capacity as only around 30 per cent of the concession, which lies on over 800 hectares of land, is exploited. The mine produces between 100 and 120 tonnes of wolfram annually and has about 950 workers. Figures from RMA show that there are over 30 mining cooperatives in the country employing about 34,000 people. The government expects the number of employees in the sector to hit 60,000 by 2018. The government targets to collect $400 million from mineral exports by 2017/2018. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
