Registration procedures of International NGO’ too cumbersome

Editor, It was through your newspaper that I read about the plight of the visually impaired of Kigali. Rwanda Renaissance very promptly responded with an offer to help set up a suitable facility in Kigali to help these visually impaired persons, so that they do not have to resort to begging. Again, your newspaper did a very effective follow-up of our offer with the Ministry of Local Government, who considered what was being offered by our proposed NGO a “brilliant project “. This has encouraged us to take the project to the next level and plan an International Seminar in Kigali during the last week of November, 2009 on the “Challenges and Opportunities of the Visually Impaired “. As a first step, we have started the process of approaching the concerned Ministries and Departments for the registration of our International NGO.Here, is where we seem to be facing a challenge. Registering a business in Kigali has been simplified tremendously by the Rwanda Development Board with the entire process taking just 24hours. A great achievement indeed. Again the Department of Immigration has even won an award for their ONLINE VISA facility. The formalities, as we have been informed, for registering our INGO seem very complicated. Recommendation letters are required from the: 1. Ministry of Education2. Ministry of Health3. Ministry of Local GovernmentFurther, a Collaboration Letter is required from the District, in this case, the Kigali City Council. Only after we collect all these Recommendation Letters and Collaboration Letters can we apply to the Department of Immigration and Emigration for the necessary registration. It is our humble request that just as Rwanda Development Board has implemented a “one window clearance” for registering a business, a similar “one window “ program should be introduced for registering an international NGO. All Ministries, Government agencies and even the Kigali City Council have been extremely supportive and co-operative. However, a simplified procedure would save a tremendous amount of time, money and energy so that we can then focus on our proposals and on launching our pilot project and not on approaching so many places for registration. Clarence FernandesChairman, Rwanda Renaissanceclavinmarketing@hotmail.com

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Registration procedures of International NGO’ too cumbersome