VILLAGE URUGWIRO - The top executives of leading global food and nutrition company, Nestlé S.A, yesterday, paid a courtesy call on President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro Village following their visit to assess investment opportunities in the country.

The team was led by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and the Executive Vice president for Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Middle East zone, Frits Van Dijk.

Others were Pierre Trouilhat, the CEO and Regional Head of Nestle Equatorial Africa Region.

Addressing reporters shortly after the meeting, Brabeck said that the group has long term commitments to Africa and part of the discussions centred around their establishment in Rwanda.

"We have been discussing the possibilities of establishing the presence of Nestlé in Rwanda and I am pleased to say that we have made the decision to establish a branch office here in Rwanda during the forthcoming months and we are very happy,”

"We have been extremely impressed and motivated by what has been achieved in Rwanda over the last couple of years. The country certainly has institutional frameworks which are very favourable for foreign direct investment,” Brabeck said.

Brabeck added that Rwanda’s economic growth has been impressive, especially over the last couple of years, registering an average growth of over 8.8 percent and seen as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

He noted that the country is politically stable, one of the three important factors that make Rwanda favourable for foreign direct investment.

"We were also impressed by the fact that Rwanda has a concentrated one stop centre to deal with the establishment of foreign companies. It is an institution that we had the pleasure to visit this evening,” Brabeck said, referring to the group’s visit to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

According to John Gara, the CEO of RDB, the regional head of Nestlé had earlier come to Rwanda to assess the opportunities and made a report to the Swiss-based company, and by the time the board chair decided to visit, the group had agreed to open a branch.

Gara said that after opening the branch office, Nestlé would look into the possibility of markets and a manufacturing plant in the long term.

Nestlé S.A is the largest food and nutrition company in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland.

Ends