Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has appealed to investors’ interest in Rwanda’s Gabiro Agribusiness Hub Project (GAHP) phase II to accelerate the country’s efforts in ensuring food security.

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He made the remarks, on November 9, during a boardroom session to showcase investment opportunities in Rwanda, on the margin of the ongoing Africa Investment Forum 2023, a major continental marketplace for investments, taking place in Marrakech, Morocco.

The three-day forum held under the theme: "Unlocking Africa’s Value Chains”,aims at stirring investors’ interest in bankable deals in sectors where Africa holds a comparative advantage.

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Ngirente noted that Rwanda’s economy has been on a growth trajectory over the past two decades and it is predominantly dependent on agriculture as a principal contributor to employment creating jobs for more than 70 percent of the population.

In appealing to investors’ interest in some of the untapped investment opportunities, he mentioned the country’s agriculture ambition to boost high-value crop exports and ensure food security by implementing a commercial farming initiative, Gabiro Agribusiness Hub Project (GAHP) in collaboration with different partners.

The hub was developed to cater for the country’s food security needs, offset the trade balance where imports still outstrip exports.

It also aims to develop an advanced agricultural eco-system and modern value chain with advanced water infrastructure, innovative irrigation systems, high-value agro-processing operations, and other agrotech activities across the value chain.

It uses a drip irrigation system —a type of irrigation that has the potential to save 80 percent of water, and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly from tubes to the roots, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface.

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"We are encouraging you to partner with Rwanda, as we will soon embark on developing Phase 2 of this project,” Ngirente said.

He also pitched other areas of investment opportunities including an advanced national medical hub to facilitate the transfer of new technologies, fostering research, and promoting pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing.

In addition, he mentioned an opportunity to invest in the mining sector through mineral exploration, extraction, processing and trading. Rwanda has a diverse mineral resource, including 3Ts (Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum), gold, lithium-bearing minerals, gemstones, and industrial materials.

Ngirente called on investors and business leaders to privilege Rwanda as an investment destination in order to leverage the existing potential found in the country.

"I want to emphasize that Rwanda is committed to the implementation of programs that ease doing business and promote private investment. We strongly believe that successful transformation will only be achieved through strong partnerships between the public and private sector.”