Fellow Rwandans;

I wish you all a happy Labour Day. I want to thank you for the work you do every day to advance your families, communities and our nation. Our efforts as Rwandans, in collaboration with our partners, have already started to show good results – in the past five years one million Rwandans raised themselves from poverty. But we still have more work to do together to take our nation and our people where we deserve to be.

Every year 125,000 young Rwandans enter the job market. Their talents, energy and good will have to be matched by opportunity. The Government continues to invest in ensuring that all Rwandans with good ideas can become entrepreneurs. This is why the Business Development Fund accessible all over Rwanda was created, to support Rwandans to create jobs from innovative ideas, particularly those who have difficulty accessing loans. I congratulate the winners of this year’s competition for Small and Medium Enterprises from all the Districts – you are leading the way for the development of our country.

Rwanda will be built by the hands of its citizens; we know already how far we can go when we work together.  Let us continue to uphold the value of work because it goes hand in hand with dignifying ourselves and our country.

I hope you have a good day of rest and reflection.