Government will offload its shares in three major companies to the stock market, paving way for ordinary Rwandans to take up ownership of the lucrative firms, Finance Minister told reporters. 

Musoni said government plans to get rid of its stake in country’s sole brewer Bralirwa, telecom giant MTN Rwanda, and insurance company SONARWA during the 2009/10 financial year.

"Part of the plans we have this year is selling off government shares in three big companies in the country,” Musoni said. Government has 30 percent shares in Bralirwa, 10 percent in MTN Rwanda and 10 percent in Sonarwa.

"We intend to offload these shares through capital market so that the public can own shares in these companies,” the finance minister said after presenting the 2009/10 budget.

Currently Heineken international is the majority stakeholder in Bralirwa while IGI-Nigeria owns a big stake in SONARWA.

MTN group owns the majority shareholding in MTN Rwanda.

Last week, Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) approved Kenya Commercial Bank’s bid to cross-list its shares on the Over The Counter (OTC), becoming the first company to trade equities on the Kigali bourse.

KCB said they would soon avail their shares to the Rwandan market.

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