Local manufacturers are targeting the reopening of schools as a market that would sustain over 2.7 million facemasks that are still in warehouses.

Over 40 local manufacturers had unsold stock of over 3 million facemasks in August 2020. The masks were manufactured until June, but did not get demand due to their poor design which was not preferred by most of the customers.

To address the issue, the Government introduced the mask for all campaign, which aimed at addressing this challenge by bringing together all private and public sector stakeholders to contribute towards purchasing facemasks and distributing them to their employees.

However, that did not help much according to Swaib Munyawera, the Managing Director of Mask Investment Limited that oversees the consortium of around 47 companies.

"All the stakeholders we tried to reach out to, also claimed that they were hit hard, hence were not able to purchase the facemasks at the level we expected,” he noted.

He adds that among the three million facemasks that were in the warehouse by August, only 300,000 have been sold through the campaign.

It is in this regard that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has resolved to address the issue, through students who are returning back to school.

"We had a consultative meeting with the Education Ministry to find a way we can sell masks to students in schools”, says Sam Kamugisha, Director-General for Industry at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

He adds that the move aims to tackle both sides, saying "It will be a good initiative to curb the virus among students, and provide a market for manufacturers whose stock is still unsold”.

The development was also confirmed by Innocent Hagenimana, the Public Relations Officer of Rwanda Education Board, who confirmed that the consultative meeting had taken place, and implementations are underway.

"Yes, there is a framework policy that seeks to address the issue of unsold facemasks in schools,” he emphasizes, citing that the move aims at preventing the spread of the disease among students.

According to The New Times mini-survey, over 6 companies had closed doors due to the losses incurred from facemasks and a number of workers had been laid off.

The facemasks had a turnover of more than Rwf1 billion.