Reza, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Namibia since November 12, presented his consular commission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to start his duties as a diplomatic agent of Namibia in Rwanda. During his first month in office, Hon. Consul Reza has already received a high level delegation, H.E Monica Geingos, the First Lady of the Republic of Namibia. H.E. Geingos attended the 20th Anniversary of the Imbuto Foundation, during which she delivered remarks praising the foundations consequential role, which is guided by the values of accountability, intergenerational engagement, and impact. Namibia is a country in Southern Africa that borders the Atlantic Ocean with a population of 2.55 million people and twelve recognized languages with English being the official language. Some of its largest economic sectors include mining, which contributes 10.4 per cent of the gross domestic product, agriculture with 5 per cent, manufacturing with 13.5 per cent and tourism. Namibia has free education for both primary and secondary education levels and its tertiary intuitions are internationally recognized. This being the first time that Namibia has an honorary consul in Rwanda, The New Times’ Alice Kagina had an interview with Hon. Consul Reza on how his office can improve people to people relations between the two countries. Below are excerpts. What is your focus as this consulate takes shape? Politically, the two countries (Rwanda and Namibia) are very connected but my concern and my representation is focused on improving economic and bilateral relations. What are the potential areas of development for both countries? They are both developing countries that are trying to leapfrog into the future through innovation and technology. The private sector can enable this to happen by identifying areas of mutual interest. It is very important that economic development relation is built between the two sides. H.E Monica Geingos, the First Lady of the Republic of Namibia and Reza, Namibia’s Honorary Consul to Rwanda, during her visit in Kigali last week. Photo: Courtesy. Namibia is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union. Furthermore, its exports are focused on agriculture (meat products), fishing and mining. Namibia’s export products reach the US, China and European markets. Namibia has a highly formalized tourism industry and considering that Rwanda has started marketing itself as a tourist destination, there is much opportunity for the Rwandan tourism industry to learn. Reza, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Namibia presented his consular commission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 12. Courtesy Rwanda has gone from strength to strength under the stewardship of H.E. President Paul Kagame, and it has become a force to reckon with in this region. Rwanda has now taken its rightful place in the international arena and it can now start collaborating with other countries as an equal partner for mutually beneficial results. There are quite a few areas which we will slowly develop and find potential and fix it to the right departments. How are citizens of both countries going to benefit? People had no idea that Namibia was present in Rwanda earlier, when they had some issues like travel, they would rather go to South Africa or some other countries to find more information but this will ease access to that kind of information. This will also help ease the relationship between the two countries. In addition, there are a lot of trade opportunities, inter-exchange of cultural events, and education in terms of student exchange. One of my mandates as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Namibia is to encourage educational exchange between the two countries. Educational exchange is a good way of ensuring people to people interaction and I intend to identify educational areas of cooperation between Namibia and Rwanda. My office looks forward to opening up the Namibian Tourism industry so that it can include and reach Rwanda. In doing so, it is my hope that nationals from both sister nations may start considering each other as tourist destinations. How easy is travel between the two countries at the moment? Currently, there are no direct flights between Namibia and Rwanda. With the current global Covid-19 pandemic and the attached travel restrictions, air travel remains a challenge everywhere. It is my hope that improvement of bilateral relations between Rwanda and Namibia will become so strong that airlines will have no choice but to consider direct flights between the two capital cities. I have seen, recently, that RwandAir has joined with Qatar, this was a big initiative by RwandAir in the region, the airlines are really getting affected and Rwanda plays a major role right now as we mostly depend on it to travel across Africa. I think RwandAir has to move forward and achieve this because at the moment there are open lands to explore, it is already in South Africa so it’s not so far getting connected to Namibia as well. Contact Information: info@namibiaconsulate.rw
