Trade Mark has committed to invest $53M in Rwanda over the course of the next five years to support development in trade.

The amount over the course of the next half decade 2018-2023 will be spent at the tune of about $10M every year.

According to the new TradeMark East Africa Chairperson Erastus Mwencha, by their projections, the expenditure will create about 100,000 jobs for Rwandans.

Mwencha toldThe New Times that during the second phase, they will build on impact and progress made over the recent years.

"We will focus on making borders more efficient for regional trade, opening ip trade corridors as well as value addition of commodities,” he said.

He said that during the previous phase of support to Rwanda, they had established that their return on expenditure is about 28 per cent. This means that for every dollar spent, it creates a value of 28 dollars.

The previous phase by the firm saw an increase in terms of Rwandan firms and producers connected to external markets.

In the previous phase TradeMark invested about $65m in Rwanda with among the most significant impacts being in the reduction in cost of transporting containers from Mombasa to Kigali.

The cost has dropped by more than $1,500 from $6500 in 2011 to about $4800 in 2016 which has saved the country about $7 million.

Other impacts of the previous phase include Kagitumba one stop border post, a single electronic window to reduce clearing, electronic cargo tracking system and construction of cross border markets.

The key contributors of the new funding include Belgium, UK, US, Canada. Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Norway.

However, across the region there still exists barriers to trade such as cost of doing business, meeting quality requirements and infrastructure among others.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw