Editor,

Refer to the letter, "Made-in-Rwanda campaign and EAC trade deals are not mutually exclusive (The New Times, October 20).

Even if we accept the principle of encouraging local production, we must nevertheless be careful not to place on the market local products of poor quality. The proposal to give a 15 per cent local preference to goods produced in Rwanda should be considered with caution. Indeed, we have just had an unfortunate experience with the computers locally produced by POSITIVO-BGH.

These Positivo laptops were distributed to students of higher education but, unfortunately, it turned out that they had a manufacturing defect. Yet, the state had spent billions of Rwandan Francs on the purchase of these laptops and that was a big loss.

Joeseph

Editor’s Note: Appearing before a parliamentary standing committee on Education, Technology, Culture and Youth on Tuesday this week, the Minister for ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, admitted that there were complaints surrounding the quality of the first lot of Positivo-BGH computers but defended the Latin American company saying it had acted in accordance with the original specifications that largely targeted users in primary and secondary schools. However, he said, the firm had since upgraded the specifications following demand from university students.