Work hard to get rich, Musoni tells farmers

NORTHERN PROVINCE GAKENKE — The minister of Local Government Protais Musoni has challenged residents within the model Sector-VUP (Vision 2020 Umurenge), within Gakenke district to improve their household incomes through hard work. He was speaking on Friday after inaugurating two offices for Cyoko Sector in Minazi which is one of the poorer sectors under VUP programme.The minister also unveiled a new modern market for agro-related products in Rushashi. The minister said there is need for residents to chart out their own destiny by being more productive in order to improve their livelihoods. The VUP-programme which is Rwanda’s development framework of Vision 2020 was launched last year. It takes one of the poorest sectors in each district as a pilot upon which the development initiatives are started. Meanwhile, the minister contributed Rwf.500,000 during a fundraising drive organised for cooperatives in the area. The money would be handed over to Kabuga village where all residents have reportedly opened savings accounts. During the function, each village in Minazi formed a cooperative and each family shall be required to contribute Rwf.100 every week towards the cooperative. Reflecting on developing trends in the area, the Governor Boniface Rucagu asked the residents to build on the poverty eradication initiatives being set up by the government in order to ensure transformation of their livelihoods. Gakenke district which is one of the hilliest areas in the north has embarked on agricultural modernisation by adopting modern methods of farming an intervention which has started to bear good results. Ends