Rwanda Medical Supply Ltd (RMS) has signed a $75 million contract with USAID to improve the efficiency of Rwanda’s health commodity supply chain.

The deal was signed on September 3 and it is expected to run over a period of five years.

The project dubbed "Transforming Rwanda Medical Supply Chain (TRMS)” will serve as a primary vehicle to procure and deliver health commodities to the end user level.

The initial phase will focus on supplying HIV/AIDS products, and later on expand to Malaria, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health products and other health commodities.

As one of the first activities funded under this contract, RMS is expected to purchase nearly 350,000 multi-month supply bottles of the extremely effective HIV treatment drug.

This medicine will provide a full year of life-saving treatment to 42% of all people living with HIV in Rwanda that is about 86,825 patients.

The Minister of Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije said that the project aims at strengthening planning and management capabilities of RMS.

"It will improve operational efficiency, increase capacity to use data in decision making, and ensure proper and timely procurement and delivery of health commodities to the last mile service delivery points,” he said.

He added that the initial years will be focused on supplying HIV/AIDS products through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The USAID Rwanda Mission Director, Jonathan Kamin said that one of the thing that impressed him is the performance of the country’s pharmaceutical supply chain despite the fact that it is a complex sector.

"This is significant for Rwanda, a supply chain performance leader on the continent, as it is now the recipient of USAID’s one of the largest direct contracts for commodity procurement with a local supply chain organisation.”

"Direct partnership with capable local organisations is central to USAID’s mission to strengthen local self-capacity.” Kamin remarked.

According to RMS CEO, Pie Harerimana this fund will solve the challenge of capacity building where some money will be used to train the employees to work professionally.

He added that the interventions are designed to overcome operational inefficiencies, lengthy procurement processes, shortfalls in inventory management, unsatisfactory order fill rates, among others.

The establishment of RMS Ltd was a reform by the Government of Rwanda aiming to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chain system with the ultimate goal to ensure availability of quality drugs in health facilities for the population.