A Cabinet Meeting Wednesday named three Director Generals of government institutions that will fall under the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) as deputies to the organ’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This comes after the appointment of Joe Ritchie, a well known American businessman who founded an investment firm called Fox River Financial Resources, as the CEO of RDB. According to the minutes of the meeting signed by Cabinet Affairs Minister, Dr Charles Murigande, three of the seven heads of agencies that have been merged to form the RDB, were named Deputy CEOs in charge of different departments. Those who were appointed are Francis Gatare who was put in charge of Business Operations and Services; Rosette Chantal Rugamba in charge of Tourism and Conservation of National Parks and other protected areas for tourism activities, and Nkubito Bakuramutsa who heads the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) department. Gatare has been hitherto the Director General of the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA), Rugamba was the head of Office of Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN) and Bakuramutsa was heading the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA). Other government parastatals that were put under the RDB include the Human Resource and Institutional Capacity Development Agency (HIDA), the Rwanda Commercial Registration Services Agency (RCRSA) and the Privatization Secretariat. The purpose for the creation of the RDB was, according to officials, to facilitate speedy service delivery especially in the Service Sector. “The major reason of consolidating these agencies was to pool resources together for effectiveness,” said Vincent Karega, the State Minister for Industry and Investment Promotion. He said that the consolidation has already been effected following the passing of the bill by parliament okaying this process. “All that remains is to bring all these institutions under one roof and this will be done soon as the premises are ready…I think by the end of the year, they will be under one roof,” Karega said by telephone yesterday. The RDB will be located in a new building near the Parliamentary House on the road that leads to Nyarutarama, along Airport Road. Ritchie, a multi-millionaire also sits on the board of economic advisors to President Paul Kagame. This Advisory Board is mainly composed of various CEOs of internationally recognized companies. Ends
