Last year, government deployed business development advisors and entrepreneurship coordinators at district and sector levels. The move was geared at harmonising export and investment promotion activities and industrial development.

François Kanimba, the Minister for Trade and Industry, said the advisors are in charge of the business centres, monitoring performance of industries and supporting small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost their production potential.

As a way of supporting the initiative, government is now looking to help establish strong linkages with the private sector to promote investments at the district level. 

Kanimba said the move is expected to increase productivity across sectors, and boost the country’s export potential.

Kanimba, who was speaking during meeting on entrepreneurship and business development main interventions last week in Kigali, said under the new strategy, the advisors will be equipped with better skills to improve their capacity to facilitate investors at grassroots level.

He told the meeting attended by over 200 business development advisors, policy-makers and experts, that the business advisors at local governments will also oversee all interventions being implemented at the grassroots level, and support the district business development and employment plans. 

They will also review, monitor and evaluate action plans of stakeholders involved in entrepreneurship and business development services.

Kanimba challenged the advisors to facilitate the private sector to participate in the various investment projects in districts.

He said they must be at the forefront of co-ordinating export promotion programmes at district level, as well as industrial development projects, besides supporting SMEs to develop bankable proposals and access funding. 

Currently, there are 800 business advisors stationed in all the 30 districts across the country.

Kanimba was buoyant that facilitating investors at districts will help create more jobs for youth besides driving growth. 

The government targets creation of 200,000 off-farm jobs per year by 2018 under the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II).

According to Jean Louis Uwitonze, the director general for economic planning, monitoring and evaluation at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the district business advisors will play a key role in operationalisation of the planned community processing centres. 

Rwanda’s industrial growth is expected to be driven by community processing centres that will be set up in different parts of the country, according to the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA).

"That is where district advisors will play a crucial part, especially in identifying potential investors and helping in the dissemination of information on investment opportunities at district and sector levels,” Uwitonze said.

She added that more effort will be on planning monitoring and reporting and to fat track all national employment programmes at district level.

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