African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) is planning to change its capacity building support from projects to programmes.

Programme support involves multi sector capacity building fund including public sector supporting ,  which has not been the case previously.

This was revealed on Monday by the ACBF new Executive Secretary Dr. Frannie Leautier, who was in the country and had paid a courtesy call on Rwanda’s Private Sector Federation (PSF).

"We are happy with the direction which Rwanda is taking and is one of the few countries to have carried out skills audit,” Leautier said.

She added that ACBF is changing to a more pragmatic, multi-sector approach for both private and public sectors, a move that will take a longer period to ensure Rwanda benefits from regional programmes.

Rwanda has been a beneficiary of funds geared to build capacity to a tune of $7million out of which ACBF has contributed $1.5 million to date.

While presenting the PSF achievements and how it has utilised the funds, PSF’s  Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Hategeka, acknowledged the support ACBF has extended to Rwanda’s private sector.

"ACBF funding has been a great boost to the private sector capacity building given the huge capacity and skills shortage that stands at 40 percent according to national skills audit,” said Hategeka.

The visiting official urged the private sector to emphasise the decentralisation of capacity building process and to develop the small and medium enterprises segment in the agricultural sector in order to implement the supply chain.

The capacity building project has received support from other donors including the government of Rwanda which has to date contributed $1 million, African Development Bank has also injected $1 million while the Netherlands embassy has sunk €4.2 million among other donors.

Twenty two months after ACBF funding, 31.5 percent of it has been utilised while the CEDP funds have been 100 percent absorbed.

Hategeka stressed that the private sector is challenged among other factors with fragmentation of the capacity building project and the non-objections which take long to be granted. 

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