Kenyan, Zanzibari officials draw aid management lessons from Rwanda

KIGALI - Teams from Kenya and Zanzibar have been in the country to learn about the country’s budget support system, aid management and the One UN pilot project, among others. The group comprising of economists, a UN coordinator, and others, observed that Rwanda is on the right track, after a two-day study tour at the Ministry of Finance. “I can now confirm that Rwanda is on the right track and should maintain the focus on development planning and implementation. It is an exemplary country,” Joshua Opio, the Chief Economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Planning and National Development, noted. The Zanzibari team was impressed by Rwanda’s effective management of foreign aid. “Rwanda’s management and coordination of foreign aid is excellent; I am going to implement what I have seen here, because this is the way to go, to make sure you attain results as this falls under my portfolio,” said Ramadhan K. Juma, the official in charge of Finance and Economic development in the President’s Office. The Director of the External Finance unit at MINECOFIN, Ronald Nkusi, said the two delegations would return home with a message that Rwanda is ready to share experiences but also ready to learn from others. “We had a very fruitful exchange with our colleagues from Kenya and Zanzibar, and we hope that whatever they learnt from here will fuel their development process in their respective countries,” Nkusi said. Ends