The European Union yesterday disbursed the final end-of-year budget support payment of €27.8 million (about Rwf19.2 billion) to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. The funds are earmarked for agriculture, social protection, rural roads and nutrition. The payment brought the total amount of grant aid by the European Union this year to €69 million (Rwf58 billion). Two-thirds of the money is in form of budget support, which the EU ambassador Michael Ryan said reflected their confidence in Rwanda’s financial management system. “This has been a good year for the EU’s partnership with Rwanda. We have consistently maintained our financial commitments to Rwanda, and the figures speak for themselves,” Ryan said. In September, Rwanda and the EU signed a €460 million grant covering the next six years, to focus on energy, agriculture, governance and accountability. “We aim to allocate 80 per cent of this as budget support, in sectors worked out in full agreement with government. We align our assistance with government priorities,” he said. In the agreement signed in September, €200 million (about Rwf174 billion) will go to the energy sector to support increasing power generation, access to energy for urban and rural households, energy efficiency and reduction of diesel and biomass dependency. Agriculture development A similar amount has been earmarked for agriculture development and food security to improve food and nutrition security among rural households, support agricultural intensification and develop inclusive value chains. Accountable governance sector will receive €40 million to strengthen public accountability and democratic governance ensuring efficient, effective and accountable use of public resources. The rest will be distributed evenly to the civil society and government institutions involved in managing the programme. The EU is one of the highest grant donors to Rwanda; in the previous grant that ran from 2008 to 2013 they disbursed a total of €290 million as general budget support through the Millennium Development Goals Contract.
