The Ministry of Trade has secured Rwf32billion from Exim Bank for the expansion of Rwamagana industrial park.

"We are reviewing the percentages of our part as the Government to contribute to the development of the park. within 4 to 5 months, paper works will be completed and the works of expanding infrastructures in the park will commence,” said the acting Director General of Industry Promotion and Entrepreneurship Development at the Ministry, Evalde Mulindankaka.

Extension of water access in the industrial park, connecting road networks with asphalt, along with upgrading electricity connections will be among the works that the park benefit from the package as Henry Kakooza, the Executive secretary of Rwamagana district said.

"We have built roads in the industrial zone but we still need Rwf 6bn to connect the road networks with asphalt, we have also reviewed the budget and found that more than Rwf1.5bn is needed to extend water access to the industrial zone, that includes upgrading the Muhazi water plant and the Rwamagana mega tank”, said Kakooza.

The District also said there has been a special electricity line from Musha substation designed to only serve the industrial park, this bringing optimism to the sufficiency of power usage in the industrial park to beneficiaries in the park.

The industrial zone sits on an 8.3ha of land, which will be expanded to 304 ha in a reviewed master plan as the district revealed.

As of now the industrial park has nearly 60 plots of which 10 are developed already, 2 factories waiting to commence as they are finalizing instalments and three more that are under construction, with a couple of idle plots seen around the industrial zone.

Warning on idle land plots issued

The Ministry of trade has also urged land owners in Rwamagana industrial zone to develop them or risk being repossessed.

"It is now a month since we issued a warning to respective land owners, the law suggests that upon being availed with government land, it should be developed to a rate of at least 70 per cent, and failure to do so gives full rights to the government to repossess the land, said Mulindankaka

He added that, "We are informing those who have not developed their plots as it is articulated in the contract agreements that they are risking repossession of these land plots to the Government”.

With full allocation of required infrastructures and maximum utilisation of resources in the park, Rwamagana district envisages 6,000 job opportunities to the population, as the ministry urges land owners to abide by the contracts and construct these idle plots warning those hoarding them for future profits.

Upon completion of development, the Rwamagana industrial park will be the second biggest in the country.