Solidarity fund to focus on rural development

Funds collected through the newly created Agaciro Development fund (AgDF) will be invested into projects aimed at improving services in rural areas, the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, said yesterday. The fund is a product of last year’s national dialogue (Umushyikirano), during which it was decided that the country devises mechanisms to mobilise voluntary local resources to help accelerate development projects.“The mobilised resources will be used to supplement the national budget and facilitate government projects such as rural access to electricity, which needs about US$1.4 billion and several other rural development projects which will be discussed by the Cabinet,” Rwangombwa told a news conference.“We don’t have a target collection for the fund yet but we are sure that the money mobilised will enable faster implementation of targets”.The funds are collected through three bank accounts, namely, the National Bank of Rwanda (Account Number 120.50.72. Swift code BNRWRW Branch: Headquarter); Bank of Kigali (040-0424687-43 Swift code: BKIGRWRW Branch: Headquarter), and Bank Populaire 408-369-34 98-11 Swift code: bprwrwrw Branch: Headquarter), where individuals and groups of people can make direct deposits.To make deposits simpler, the Ministry of Finance is negotiating with telecom companies to enable individuals to make deposits through airtime vouchers, whose elaborate process would be announced once the negotiations are done.For those outside Rwanda, the government opened a website for the fund, www.agaciro.org, which has a window for credit card money transfers.However, Rwangombwa admitted that AgFD will likely not raise the funding needed to cover budgetary deficit caused by aid cuts and suspension by some development partners over allegations of Rwanda support DRC’s M23 rebels, charges Kigali has denied.But he said the move would encourage a culture of working hard to wean the country off aid.On accountability, the minister explained that mechanisms were being put in place to ensure the fund’s proper management, adding that collections would be made public annually.By press time, over Rwf30 million had been deposited on the fund’s several accounts.Although Rwangombwa stressed that the fund was not a substitute but a supplement to foreign aid, he said that its speedy implementation was critical in the wake of the unpredictable changes in the provision of foreign aid.“Even if we get aid, we decided that we need to get solutions from ourselves, and AgDF is the right answer to Rwanda’s long-term sustainability; we see it as a viable development vehicle and a tool for self-reliance,” Rwangombwa explained.“We are not mobilising this money to replace delayed aid. It was an idea that was conceived well before the supposed aid cuts. We are not worried at all about what is being said here and there, and are not doing anything unusual”.Aid delays and cuts came as a response to an addendum to an interim UN Group of Experts report, accusing Kigali of supplying fighters and logistics to the M23 rebels, who have seized part of eastern DRC since April.“We think that those who cut or suspended aid drastically behaved as donors and not as development partners. Taking action without communication or debate on a roundtable is completely against our partnership and against the general principles of aid effectiveness,” the minister added. “We haven’t put it in writing but we shall do so soon because there are those that have done it more than once”.The Finance ministry, the principal custodian of AgDF, is expected to officially launch the Fund next week on the August 23.Donors finance more than 43 per cent of the country’s budget.