Nyabihu 5-year strategic plan targets poverty reduction

Nyabihu, which emerged the least corrupt district in the country, has drawn up a five- year strategic development plan (2011-2015) which aims at improving people’s income and reducing poverty by half. The development plan was unveiled during the celebrations to recognise last year’s achievements. “All that we achieved last year was based on the principle of good governance and we are setting up strategic mechanisms to double our achievements in the next five years,” said Jean Damascene Ndagijimana, the Mayor.Increasing livestock and agricultural production as well as, banking and tourism have been prioritised by the district authorities. “We are strategically located between two tourist towns of Musanze and Rubavu given our agriculture output, we can be the food basket for these two towns hence increasing our standards of living,” said Ndagijimana. Tea production in Nyabihu has been key to the district’s development with cultivated hectares increasing from 729 in 2006 to 1024 today. The district intends to triple this by the end of 2015. Some of the achievements cited by the district include encouraging over 47,000 people to form cooperatives with over Rwf500 million. “We have also seen 11 percent of Nyabihu residents enjoy banking services though there is still the need to expand this and the government SACCOs are worth Rwf126 million with Rwf20 million given out as loans last year,” explained the Mayor. The challenges still affecting the development of the district include conservation of Gishwati forest and improving service delivery. Ends

National

Nyabihu 5-year strategic plan targets poverty reduction