Manufacturers have challenged leaders who will participate in the 13th National Leadership Retreat to devise means to bring down the cost of production, especially on energy, to enable them compete favourably on the market.

At least 250 national leaders will today converge at the Rwanda Defence Forces Combat School in Gabiro for the two-day retreat where they will discuss national priorities, the country’s shared vision to become a knowledge driven, middle-income country by 2020 and renew momentum to achieve development objectives.

Part of the agenda to be discussed is about "Made in Rwanda” where leaders specifically are expected to craft ways of revamping the manufacturing sector in line with national priority and make it bold enough to compete regionally.

According to experts, for Rwanda to achieve Vision 2020 targets, the share of manufacturing needs to increase to 26 percent of GDP, up from the current 12-14 per cent.

While many have in the past blamed poor packaging and limited marketing skills for low consumption of the locally made products manufacturers expect leaders to help create stronger public-private partnerships.

Speaking to Saturday Times, the Chairperson of Rwanda Manufacturers Association, Robert Bayigamba, said cross-cutting challenges are everyone’s responsibility although government should ensure systems in place are working and delivering to expectations.

Among the challenges that need to be closely looked at, Bayigamba hinted on the issue of energy and transport cost, flooding of counterfeited products on the local market, lack of a big market, financial pressures and skills gap.

"There will be a need to assess the implementation of the existing strategies and know whether they serve the purpose and rightly, on the other hand a lot need to be done,” he said.

According to Bayigamba, Rwanda’s cost of energy will need to be significantly reduced way below other competitive prices in the region on top of being constantly supplied.

This, he said, will ease business for local producers who will have more time to deal with other issues.

For a country that seeks to increase its power generation to 563 megawatts by 2017 from the current 186 megawatts installed capacity, field experts believe teaming up with regional member states to design a harmonised policy will help it seize huge opportunities to deliver on its energy goals.

Consumers’ mindset

The conversation about Made-in-Rwanda is expected rotate around such issues as poor packaging, that has seen consumers shunning quality Rwanda-made products for those manufactured by other regional players.

Bayigamba said this will need stronger public-private partnerships where companies will need to develop proposals for good projects that will see branding firms established in the country whose operations might benefit from existing incentives.

During last month’s expo for locally-made products, Trade and Industry minister Francois Kanimba pushed exhibitors to use innovative methods to ensure they change people’s narrative that everything imported is of better quality than what is locally made.

Minister Kanimba said government is in talks with a number of stakeholders to prioritise locally-made products, which, according to experts, will bring down trade imbalance and strengthen competitiveness on the market.

Export credit agencies for a wider market

The National Leadership Retreat will as well need to strategise how Rwanda can be exposed to broader markets, which, Bayigamba said, will open up minds of local manufacturers.

"Rwanda Development Board has been doing a lot of work in this field, but more can be done, for example, we need export credit agencies that can provide financial support and guarantees for traders eyeing overseas markets,” he said.

Bayigamba said while bankers have stuck to their guns against lowering interest rates, leaders in the retreat can exhaustively discuss the issue and hopefully come out with suitable solutions.

Rwandan manufacturers also hope leaders will as well tackle the invasion of counterfeited products on local markets.

Several reforms undertaken so far in "Easing Doing Business” and the incentives provided for under the Investment Code, the share of Manufacturing to GDP has remained in the 12 per cent – 14 per cent brackets since 2000.

According to a concept note of the retreat, leaders will examine three key sub-sectors; dairy, wood and garments and leather, which present significant potential of quick turnaround, as well a potential to create jobs and improve the country’s trade balance.

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