The United Kingdom, through the UK Department for International Development (DFID) will Tuesday evening launch a six-year project that is expected to help commercialise agriculture in Rwanda.

The programme, worth £23.5 million (approximately Rwf24 billion), is dubbed Improving Market Systems for Agriculture in Rwanda (IMSAR) and will be launched by visiting British minister for the Department for International Development (DFID), James Wharton.

A statement from the UK High Commission in Rwanda states that DFID is committed to supporting economic transformation, job creation and export promotion in Rwanda.

 "(The project) has been designed in close consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the private sector to support agribusiness, help farmers, develop the private sector, create jobs and, ultimately drive economic growth and exports,” reads part of the statement.

We have designed, and begun to implement, several new programmes intended to support this, it adds.

The launching ceremony of IMSAR will be held in the Kigali Convention Centre from and will include a panel discussion with Donal Brown, the DFID Director for East and Central Africa.

Other panellists attending include: the Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Geraldine Mukeshimana, the Permanent Secretary Minister of Trade and Industry Emmanuel Hategeka; the Director of Logistics, Trade Mark East Africa TMEA- Ahbisheck Sharma and Dr Diane Karusisi, the CEO of the Bank of Kigali