President Paul Kagame on October 18 appointed Mark Cyubahiro Bagabe, a food safety and quality management expert, as the new Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources. He replaces Ildephonse Musafiri, who served as the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources for over one year and a half – from March 2023. ALSO READ: Kagame picks new local government, agric ministers Bagabe holds a Ph.D in plant health (plant virology and physiology) from the University of Reading in United Kingdom (1999 - 2004), which he got after obtaining a Master of Science in technology of crop protection at the same university (August 1988 to December 1989. In his profile on LinkedIn, Bagabe describes himself as a leader in food safety and quality management to enhance continual improvement of internal processes, at organisational and operational levels, to increase efficiency and ensure value for stakeholders and customers, with over 20 years track record in change management, food safety, and agricultural research and development. Experience Upon his appointment to the new ministerial position, Bagabe was the Director General of Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (RICA), since March this year. RICA's core business is enforcement of standards and technical regulations through product and service inspections, registration of business premises, licensing operators, ensuring fair competition in mergers and acquisitions, and protecting consumer rights. Earlier, he was an international consultant on food safety, quality management, and agriculture at International Trade Centre, from November 2019 to March. His work there was in line with policy and strategy design and analysis in food quality and food safety, using lean principles to increase efficiency or productivity and to reduce waste, and monitoring and evaluation of compliance with food safety requirements and quality standards. It is not the first time Bagabe has become a leader in agriculture development-related entities. He was the Director General of Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), from October 2016 to January 2018. He also served as Director General of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), from August 2009 to October 2016, and Director General of the former Rwanda Agricultural Research Institute (ISAR), from April 2005 to August 2009.
