NYAMAGABE - A campaign to sensitise the local population to participate in the buying of shares in Bralirwa has gone up-country, with road shows staged in Gisagara, Huye and Nyamagabe districts, in the Southern Province.

The shows have attracted a lot of interest from the local population who are keen to buy shares in the country’s largest brewery and soft drinks maker, Bralirwa.

Musa Nsubuga, the representative of MBEA brokerage services Rwanda, said that the exercise is meant to empower people economically.

"The offer of shares is meant enable people own their property, instead of these companies being owned by foreigners. Priority is given to the citizens and that is why the government is putting a lot of money in sensitisation,” said Nsubuga.

He pointed out that one of the challenges they are addressing is the distrust for financial institutions.
"People need assurance that the money they will invest into the buying of shares is in safe hands judging from past experiences, where many lost money in micro-finance institutions and cooperatives,” he added.

The lack of brokerage services outside Kigali city and the small number of people with bank accounts were also highlighted as some of the other challenges during the road show.

"We have encouraged them to open up accounts so that if they want to sell shares, money is credited to their accounts by their brokers in Kigali,” said Nsubuga.

"The turnout has been encouraging, people have been enthusiastic about the initiative and we hope many will go on to buy shares in the company.”

A total of 128, 570,000 shares are on offer for Rwf136 each. The shares will be listed on the Rwandan stock exchange on January 31, 2011.

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