Contrary to popular belief, the Covid-19 pandemic did not go away at midnight 31st December. 6 days into the New Year, the pandemic seems to be around for a while which calls for everyone to play their part in keeping at bay. As the country strives to keep the disease at bay, there are local and international opportunities to pursue which could foster national and global economic recovery. For instance, Rwanda’s horticultural products are now being traded in the Carrefour hypermarket following a deal between the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) and a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based retail firm. The partnership between NAEB and Carrefour is seen as a key enabler for Rwandan producers of fresh products, exporters and the country’s economy at large. This is one of many efforts to grow productivity and efforts that local enterprises ought to look out for to drive economic recovery following a slowdown. It has also emerged that starting this year, Rwanda based manufacturers are eligible for tax credits starting this year as part of the government’s move to incentivize local production, job creation and exports. The incentives which will be performance based will see manufacturers earn tax credit on fulfilling certain criteria. The relief is under an initiative; ‘Manufacture and Build to Recover Programme’. Among the criteria to be considered for firms to be eligible for the tax credits will be additional revenues (domestic and international sales) or exports, and creation of additional jobs. The programme is designed to significantly reduce the cost of setting up industries of select products as well as existing firms who would like to expand their current operations. It is by looking out for such and more avenues that the economy can recover in the year, save jobs and have some resilience given the year that was. Making the most of the opportunities and incentives will also require action by other players in the ecosystem such as financial institutions to avail the necessary financing and support. The opportunities are not solely for producers and manufactures but also for institutions and entities that work closely with them such as financiers. Going forward, it would only be fair to expect that banks and other financing entities see the opportunities and adjust their terms of engagement.
