Gov’t to create 1.5m jobs in the next seven years

KIGALI - The Ministry of Public Service and Labour plans to create 1.5 million jobs in seven years,The Director General of Employment and Labour in the ministry, Anna Mugabo, said this in an interview with The New Times. Mugabo said that strategies have been laid down to see that over 140,000 jobs, excluding farm jobs, are created per year with the aim of creating employment for at least 1.5 million. “These jobs will be created through small and medium enterprises that will be created, whereby each SME will create at least eight jobs,” said Mugabo. According to the labour ministry, there are only 90,000 SMEs in the country and over 10,000 hawkers in the country. “We have started with these vendors as our first pilot phase; the government is going to give them support so that they can carry out their business in a conducive manner that will enable them create jobs for others,” said Mugabo, adding that the ministry has taken up advocacy through the banks to give them loans. On the side of graduates, Mugabo said more students will be trained in entrepreneurship skills with the help of Rwanda Development Board. She also said that there are plans to improve internship programmes and emphasize more business competitions. According to the ministry, to achieve the goal, the government will construct markets for the youth who have completed vocational training in order to boost markets for their products. “And now that we are conducting a new labour market survey, this will help us get detailed information on the current employment and unemployment rates in the country. We will be able know the best practices required to create more jobs,” Mugabo noted. Ends