The Rwanda Information Office (ORINFOR) has announced plans to become a public service broadcaster.

This means that the institution will start running programmes, publications and new media outputs that are driven by public and not political interests.

This was disclosed Thursday by Willy Rukundo the acting Director General of ORINFOR, during a workshop to validate the institution’s new 5-year strategic and business plan at Hotel Le Printemps, Kigali.

"This time our target is to take our services to the public, because we use their money – the taxpayer’s money; we need to serve the public more,” he explained, adding that the shift will make the institution serve as a bridge between the leaders and the led.

Rukundo said the shift will enable the institution to serve the public more than it does today. Presently, ORINFOR programmes are largely dominated by central and local government officials.

He added their plans involve re-branding the agency, by giving it a new name and a logo, which he says will help change its public image.

Rukundo also said that, in the long run, ORINFOR plans to become self-sustaining, and thus will cut on its government reliance.

According to Protais Musoni, the caretaker Minister of Information, described the new strategic and business plan as a "navigation tool that will guide us in the next five years, as we try to satisfy the needs of Rwandans and the rest of the world who want to know what is taking place in our country.”

Musoni urged ORINFOR to swim professionally in the waters of information dissemination and exchange if they want to remain relevant to their audiences, locally and internationally.

Ends