Premier: Investments in remote areas paved way for early Covid-19 recovery

Prime Minister, Edouard Ngirente, has said that the government’s investments in rural areas were part of the drivers of rapid economic recovery from the Covid-19 effects. He was speaking during the presidential dialogue on ‘Africa’s Development Challenges and Opportunities at the opening ceremony of the 57th African Development Bank Annual Meeting in Accra, Ghana on May 24. “During the pandemic, cities were not working properly because of different lockdowns, but in some remote areas there were not many cases of Covid-19, so we decided to go and invest there, Delegates follow remarks by Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Afufo-Addo at the African Development Bank annual meeting in Accra on Tuesday, May 24. Photo: Courtesy. That’s why we were able to build 22,000 classrooms during the first nine months of the pandemic because we wanted money in circulation over there and support the education sector as we believe in human capital development,” he said. Ngirente was sharing with delegates policies that were put in place by Rwanda to kick-start its economic recovery process. He said that the overall process of economic rebound was driven by four key components of the recovery programme. These include; the Economic Recovery Fund— which was designed to help the most hit sectors such as hospitality, transport and other economic activities. “Last week I launched a second phase of the recovery fund which is going to help big and small businesses,” he said. The second phase follows the Rwf100 billion that was launched in June 2020, and benefited more than 3,000 small businesses. Ngirente also mentioned that Covid-19 has made Rwanda realise that there are some products that are not produced locally while the capacity to do so is available. Secondly, while referring to the Manufacture and Build to Recover Programme, Ngirente told the attendees that the country mapped out a list of ‘must have’ products that manufacturers will receive incentives for producing within a timeframe limited to two years. The programme offers tax incentives and non-tax incentives and it has attracted more than 90 projects in the manufacturing sector, and the projection is that it will help create 30,000 jobs, noted Ngirente. The third key component, he said, is the subsidies given to the agriculture sector. “To able to make it an attractive sector (especially for the youth), you have to show people that it is profitable,” he noted. “We made sure that there is financing in that sector and we are trying to put in place a project which will lower the interest rate to a single digit. At least people can know that if you want to invest in agriculture you will have funding at a lower interest rate.” In addition to that, the Premier said that Rwanda has achieved the target of weaning herself off the seed imports. Currently, all agriculture seeds are produced locally, he disclosed. Lastly, he noted the ongoing project to set up a bulk blending fertilizer and storage plant in Bugesera Industrial Park to among others produce, market and distribute fertilizers. Call to strengthen AfDB’s access to global financing President Nana Addo Dankwa Afufo-Addo of Ghana said that discussions of these annual meetings should focus on what should be done to strengthen the African Development Banks access to the ‘huge pool of resources on the globe’. This, according to him, will enable the bank to play its primary function of being responsible for financing the development of African countries. “The discussion can find even solutions within the bank itself. People here representing other interests in the world can smoothen direct and fruitful engagements,” he added.

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Premier: Investments in remote areas paved way for early Covid-19 recovery