Rwanda and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) on Thursday, May 30, signed a financing agreement of $20 million to support the rehabilitation of Muhanga-Nyange road.

Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana and Waleed Al-Bahar, the Acting Director General of KFAED, signed the concessional loan deal on the sidelines of the African Development Bank Annual Meeting, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The financing provided will help Rwanda complete the Rubengera-Muhanga road project.

The road project has three sections; Rubengera-Rambura (15.15km) which was implemented with the financing from Saudi Fund for Development, Rambura-Nyange (22km) supported by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and, Nyange-Muhanga (24km) whose financing will be provided by KFAED.

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Ndagijimana told The New Times that the project’s procurement process has already started owing to "the flexibility of financiers” that allowed it to begin even before the agreement signing ceremony.

"We believe the project implementation will be fast-tracked and movement will be enhanced on that road.”

He thanked the Kuwait Fund for the longstanding cooperation which has been impactful across different projects, mainly in the infrastructural areas. KFAED sectors of intervention are in education, transport, and health sectors.

Ndagijimana said that accessing concessional loans enabled the country to keep in check its debt status while at the same time balancing budget expenditure.

The minister also met with Pasi Hellman, Finland's Vice Minister for International Development, to sign a public sector investment framework agreement, and held talks with Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, the President of the OPEC Fund, on enhancing bilateral cooperation and establishing a medium-term country partnership.