Varsity staff to set up Rwf4bn health facility

IMANZI Investment Company (IIG), a National University of Rwanda (NUR) staff company, is set to build a state-of-the-art modern clinic in Huye District.The construction of the modern health facility is set to start before the end of the year and will cost an estimated Rwf4 billion, according to Jean Paul Murekezi, IIG Chief Executive Officer (CEO).Imanzi Polyclinic, as the facility will be named, is a joint venture between Imanzi Investment Group (IIG) and the NUR Medical Insurance Schem. A 50-year-renewable partnership between the two to build and run the facility was signed on Wednesday in Huye. As part of the agreement, MS/UNR will avail collateral and support funds whereas IIG will build and operate the clinic, Murekezi told The New Times.It will be constructed on a strategic ground in the central part of Huye town, in the space currently occupied by the University Centre for Public Health (CUSP).“The clinic will not only benefit the NUR community, but the entire Rwandan population,” Murekezi told The New Times after the signing of the agreement.“We want to do something which will make a contribution to the national development,” he noted.Speaking at the ceremony, the Southern Province Executive Secretary Jeanne Izabiriza, welcomed the initiative and noted that it was a significant shift in the way the university has been operating.“This is a significant and timely investment and we do support it,” Izabiriza said. “The clinic will further improve the quality of [health] services,” she noted.Huye mayor Eugene Kayiranga Muzuka commended the existing cooperation between the university and the district.“As we keep strengthening our cooperation, this university will start to serve the people,” He observed. Putting skills to useThe Huye-based University has previously been cisted for making little use of skills from its intellectuals to introduce initiatives which would boost the local community’s development. During his visit to Huye district last February, Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi expressed dissatisfaction over the district development status, saying it is not utilising its ‘potentialsand opportunities.’