Setting up installations to produce the new Made in Rwanda Heineken beer, cost the local brewery Euro 9M, the firm has said.

The Made in Rwanda Heineken beer will be exported to regional market, Bralirwa’s Managing Director, Victor Madiela said at the launch of the locally made beer on Friday at Kigali Convention Center.

He said that as Rwanda becomes a regional hub for Heineken production, the beer will be exported next year.

"We anticipate starting to exporting the drink to the region next year. That is Uganda, Burundi and DRC. To reach this milestone we have made an overall investment of €9 million on equipment to produce the beer,” he said.

Figures show that 2.5 million bottles of Heineken are sold globally every day.

Rwanda becomes the 9th country among African countries that produce Heineken after Ethiopia Nigeria, Maroc, Namibia, South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia.

Michel Sebera, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry said: "This is a key milestone in our efforts to achieve the dream of becoming a knowledge-based private sector led and middle income economy.”

Government always welcomes such new investments in Rwanda and this locally produced Heinkenen will boost income taxes to our economy through industrial production, Industry sector in Rwanda contributes to 17 per cent of GDP and it is expected to grow to 20 % by 2020, he said.

The official noted that agro-processing is a big part of industries that are recapturing domestic market in local productions of products.

"This is will serve to further reduce the trade deficit significantly by promoting Made in Rwanda products where exports have increased by 69 per cent and imports reduced by 4 per cent since 2015,” he said.

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