It is only a few days to the end of 2023. We are already into the festive season. Yesterday was Christmas Day when Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A week later, it will be New Year’s Day when we mark passage of time and our achievements in the year ended, not least of which is being alive and look to the new one with anticipation. It is a season of goodwill, generosity and celebration. Our celebrations began a week earlier, on Monday December 18, when Rwandans received their Christmas and New Year presents early. Two important events took place in Kigali on that day. They were both symbol and evidence of Rwanda’s development goals and their trajectory, the country’s commitment to regional and international cooperation, and its pan-African credentials. We have some achievements to celebrate and can forget, even if only for a moment, some irksome pseudo politicians and their promoters, political quarrels in other lands, and issues of insecurity in the region that won’t go away. One of those two events was the signing of a country host agreement for the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation between Rwanda and the African Development Bank and a Memorandum of Understanding between the same foundation and the European Investment Bank. The Pharmaceutical Foundation, according to statements at the signing ceremony, is a very good example of public-private collaboration across continents and aims to build a “resilient and self-reliant pharmaceutical industry for Africa” Two key things stand out. One is technology. We were informed that the Foundation will help us access the latest technology in pharmaceutical production and increase innovation capabilities. The other is industrialisation – improve the local manufacturing of medical products to reduce the near total reliance on supplies from abroad. The second event was the inauguration of the BioNTech vaccine factory in Kigali. Like the Pharmaceutical Foundation, this facility will serve, not Rwanda alone but the African continent as a whole. In the words of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, it aims to provide answers to the question of vaccine inequity that became so glaringly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also dispels the misconceptions (most of them deliberate, others out of ignorance) about Africa’s supposed inability to handle advanced technology at this stage. Again, like the Pharmaceutical Foundation, it is proof of the necessity and effectiveness of international collaboration. Why are we so excited by these developments? Well, they make a very important statement about the state of the country. We are not alone in seeing the BioNTech factory and hosting of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation this way. Others see it, too, and have called it a revolution, a game changer, a key milestone. At the inauguration of the vaccine factory, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados said she “came to usher in a revolution”. In his message, World Health Organisation president Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus said the, launch of the “BioNTech Group Africa represents an important milestone in public-private efforts to scale up research, development, manufacturing and access to the newest health tools”. The development represents the possibility of medical innovation becoming more accessible to more people. The European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the “local manufacturing of vaccines with mRNA technology in Africa for the African people is a game changer in the fight against diseases and pandemics”. Rwandans are, of course, proud to see their country becoming a centre for important developments in the medical field, the latest of which come to complement a healthcare ecosystem that is being built. This ecosystem includes training and research institutions, such as IRCAD, to produce more and better skilled healthcare professionals, specialised hospitals and related institutions, regulation through the African Medicines Agency, also to be hosted in Rwanda, and now pharmaceutical manufacturing. You would excuse some who think all this is a miracle. Thirty odd years ago, few thought that Rwanda would be where it is today. Even those with the wildest imagination or limitless optimism would have had great difficulty. You would have to have the proverbial faith to move a mountain. It appears, however, that such faith can sometimes be found. Rwanda has been blessed with leaders with the conviction to make the seemingly impossible happen, who know where to stand to move the thousand hills on which they live, and the vision of where they want to move. That task is made infinitely easier by having citizens who have much trust in their leaders. However, this should not really come as a surprise. In fact, it should be expected from people who liberated their country and stopped the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994when the rest of the world had turned its back on them, who rose up from the ashes when nobody gave them a chance or had written them off as wished them to disappear. They refused to go away and instead began to grow, prosper and catch the attention of the rest. Rather than be the unenviable example of failure, they have become the model of what is possible. During this festive season, they celebrate the results of that conviction, effort and trust. This sort of thing does not just happen. It is earned. That is the spirit with which the year ends and another begins.
