Try Made in Rwanda this Easter

Am I being overtaken by events or what?! There was this first of its kind “Made-in-Rwanda” expo in Kigali earlier in the month but unfortunately I slept on the job and failed to milk the event here in Loose Talk in good time. This is why while you, reader and the editor obviously expected a fun little Easter-themed piece this Sunday, my thoughts and my mind are still with Made-in-Rwanda. “The campaign to promote locally-made goods among Rwandans has got a huge boost with the Private Sector Federation (PSF) and the Trade and Industry Ministry organizing an exhibition targeting Rwandan producers …”, was how the all-dependable The New Times business reporter broke the good news to the world. That was a tight intro, right? At the expo’s official opening at the Gikondo Expo Grounds, Trade and Industry minister Francois Kanimba was not, as usual, in a mood to mince his words: He warned against that nonsense of people misguidedly thinking that everything imported is of superior quality to what’s put together from here. So in the true spirit of “Buy Made in Rwanda, Buy Quality”, let us see what needs to be done to achieve this vision. The first thing the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Rwanda Development Board and maybe the Private Sector Federation need to do is to acknowledge the fact that it all starts in a name. In other words, before we can be expected to “Buy Made in Rwanda and Buy Quality”, the names of products, or those of organizations whose services we crave the most MUST all be changed to adhere to a strict “Proudly Rwandan” code of naming. All names of products produced in Rwanda must be distinctly Rwandan in tone and resonance. The good news is that we already have a few products and a few organizations whose names speak volumes in as far as the “Made in Rwanda” mantra is concerned. Names like Imbuto Foundation. Names like Duterimbere IMF. Names like Inyange. Such names as Sina Gerard’s Agashya all the way from Enterprise Urwibutso in Nyirangarama. In fact, Sina Gerard simply deserves an award in this respect, because all the names and brands associated with his business empire are tight, organic, and authentically Rwandan: Sina Gerard. Nyirangarama. Enterprise Urwibutso. Agashya. Akarusho. Akarabo. Akabanga. Restaurant Ikimaranzara … and it goes on and on. Wait, was this not supposed to be some Loose Talk that is laced with talk about Easter?

Lifestyle

Try Made in Rwanda this Easter