Water and Sanitation Company (WASAC) has donated Rwf50 million to Agaciro Development Fund in a boost to the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

Aimé Muzola, WASAC chief executive, said that the contributions from the utility body’s staff was a sign of sustaining national dignity.

"This is the action we commit to every year. It has already been integrated into our system and we urge more others to do so every year,” he said while handing over the cheque to the Fund. "It is not really a lot of money but we think seeking dignity concerns both the poor and the rich and it only requires changing attitude.”

The contributions, he said, were collected from over 1,000 WASAC’s staff across the country.

Jack Kayonga, the Fund’s CEO lauded the water utility’s staff for continued efforts to support Rwanda Sovereign wealth fund.

"We recognise WASAC’s efforts who contribute every year to the fund. This is the fifth year for WASAC donating money to this Fund with not less than Rwf50 million. This is a good culture to prepare the country for a better future,” he said.

The Fund is product of the 11th National Dialogue Council (Umushyikirano) in December 2011. It was introduced to build up savings to achieve self-reliance, maintain stability in times of shocks to the national economy and help accelerate Rwanda’s socio-economic development goals.

By the end of last year, the Agaciro Development Fund had grown to Rwf184 billion ($200 million) up from around Rwf46 billion in December 2017.

"Today, our assets have amounted to about Rwf194 billion thanks to such contributions and investments we do,” he said.

Kayonga said that private sector contributions are still low but efforts to sustain mobilisation of the funds are ongoing.

Contributions to the Fund are invested in income-generating projects.

"The money is deposited in banks which pay us interest rates. We also buy bonds from the government where we also get profits. We also invest in companies and so far we have 28 companies,” he said.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com