Population growth raises concerns

The rate at which the country’s population is rising is a matter of national concern; the Director of Planning in the Ministry of Finance, Andre Habimana, has said. Addressing participants of the 7th National Dialogue, Habimana said that following the current growth trend from 2000, the country’s population will grow by 5.3 million by 2020. Habimana also said that in 2000, the population of Rwanda was 7.7 million and by 2008, it had gone up to 9.6 million. He also indicated that by next year, the population would have grown to 10 million. He informed the participants that to address the high population growth, special attention was being channeled in lowering the fertility rate by carrying out countrywide sensitization campaigns and ensuring supply of family planning services. “We have made progress in the area of family planning by improving from 37 percent to 51.6 percent,” he said. The total fertility rate (children per women) moved from 6.1 in year 2000, to 5.5 in 2008 and is expected to fall to 4.5 by 2020. The government also indicated its commitment to reducing infant, child and maternal mortality rates and its intention to promote the young population as the engine for economic growth. Urban population grew from 10 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2008 and is expected to rise 18 percent next year and 20 percent in year 2020. Habimana also touched on statistics of people and agriculture which indicates that the population that was actively involved in the activity dropped from 90 percent in year 2000 to 80 percent in 1999 and is expected to drop to 75 next year. Ends