Rwanda Food and Drug Authority (FDA) on Friday approved a list of more than 20 domestic companies that have been authorized to turn their facilities into production of personal protective equipment. The companies will be producing barrier and surgical masks, as well as face shields, and this is expected to support the country to cut down on the imports of these equipment. Dr. Charles Karangwa, the Director General of Rwanda FDA told The New Times on Saturday that the local companies were given green light after thorough assessment. “Some (companies) have already been producing informally, so we have done an assessment and inspection of their premises to give them, and others a go-ahead,” he said. The companies include some of the big firms in production of garments like UTEXRWA, Pink Mango, Apparel Manufacturing Group (AMG), Pharmalab, and Burera Garments, to mention but a few. “We are now largely relying on imports, that’s why we needed to revise the situation. There are a lot of constraints to imports from outside,” the director noted. They are all expected to produce a combined 600,000 masks per day. Dr. Karangwa indicated that some countries like the United States and China have already put restrictions on exports of personal protective equipment to protect their people. European Union, for instance, adopted a scheme last month to limit exports of medical supplies to other countries to ensure enough supply in the bloc. The President of the European Union Ursula von der Leyen said at the time that the EU adopted an export authorisation scheme for protective equipment. This means such medical goods can only be exported to non-EU countries with the explicit authorization of EU governments. The move by domestic firms to produce needed protective gear that helps in the fight against the spread of Covid-19 would go a long way to fill the vacuum left by countries like those in the EU. Other countries are following the same move under the African Union Development Agency. Apparel Manufacturing Group (AMG), one of the companies that has received green light, will put their 300 machines and 500 tailors to work to exclusively produce masks. “We already have fabrics and machines, all we needed was the approval to get down to work,” Justus Mugaruka, the group’s chief executive told this paper. The group is a collective investment of 42 textile companies with Kigali-based facilities that produce all sorts of modern clothes. They will now join the government effort to produce barrier masks. They say they have capacity to produce at least 3,000 masks per day.
