Local players in Rwanda’s economic landscape affirm the need to catalyze efforts and investments in promoting the Made in Rwanda initiative to boost economic growth and bridge the prevailing trade deficit gap.

The Made in Rwanda Policy, adopted in 2017, is a holistic roadmap aimed at increasing economic competitiveness by enhancing Rwanda’s domestic market through value chain development.

Building from the strides registered over the past years with an average GDP of 8 percent, the government seeks to make Rwanda a hub for high-quality, locally made goods that will boost the economy and create jobs, driven by significant investments in agriculture, manufacturing, and services, as stipulated under the new National Strategy of Transformation (NST2).

Businessman Benjamin Gasamagera, Founder and CEO of Safari Centre, said that since the inception of the Made in Rwanda concept, there has been a mindset shift among both producers and consumers of products.

However, the imbalance in imports and exports despite the advancement of made in Rwanda is due to a challenge of accessing raw materials and after production storage infrastructure, he added.

"We need to reach a level of management capacity of the whole value chain, and financing mechanisms that facilitate our products to be price competitive on markets.”

According to Gasamagera, private sector members should understand the power of working together to consolidate efforts in production and satisfaction of markets while tackling common challenges at the same time.

He finds that this would improve efficiency and productivity across sectors in addition to laying the foundation upon which government policies and incentives can generate real impact.

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While there has been commendable progress, Emmanuel Tuyishime, Founder and Managing Director of Temaco Builders Ltd, acknowledges that there is more to be done for the country to be able to produce majority of needed products, noting that the construction industry boom since 2020 has increased local manufacturing production but the gap remains on advanced materials that are still imported.

To this, he mentioned the need for capacity building in such sectors, pointing out that there are so many skills dormant in higher education and technical and vocational schools which don’t make it to the market.

"The private sector needs to partner with universities and TVETs to harness and leverage so many skill sets of young people. This is the existing gap behind not having diverse innovations on the market which would ultimately advance our industries and create more jobs,” he said.

Tuyishime said that the company intends to expand beyond borders to other markets in the region, citing that it should be easier to succeed within their different policies and regulations given that they were able to do so in Rwanda.

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Prudence Sebahizi, Minister of Trade and Industry, said that the recent Industrial Policy approved by the cabinet on August 23, will be fast-tracked for adoption with an aim to improve the business environment for existing industries and attract investors in the manufacturing industry in the country.

According to him, this will lead to reduction of the trade deficit as local production will be boosted to increase exports and curb imports gradually.

Under the NST2 that will span over the next five years, the government seeks to increase export levels from $3.5 billion to $7.3 billion, fuelled by non-traditional products, agro-processing, and mining focusing on value addition.

In regards to quality, Sebahizi said that Rwandan products are not of poor quality rather, institutions should endeavor to sign mutual recognition agreements with export destination countries to facilitate acceptance, however, he noted that there is room for quality improvement on certain products locally manufactured.

He pointed out that there can be more effort invested in promoting food production, textile industry, among others.

Additionally, the Trade Minister emphasised that while the Kigali Special Economic Zone is creating a significant impact in accelerating industrialization, more effort and awareness will be invested in promoting industrial zones across the country.