The European Union (EU) has announced it will allocate US$618mn of funding from its 11th European Development Fund (EDF) to Rwanda
The EU officials said that the amount will be issued to the east African nation over a period of five years.
Despite Rwanda’s 4.6 per cent growth registered in 2013, the EU will want the country to achieve 11.5 per cent growth by 2018.
Michael Ryan, EU ambassador to Rwanda, stated that although the nation has made substantial progress in sectors aside from agriculture, there is scope for improvement. President Paul Kagame has expressed his keenness to position Rwanda as an industry and services-based economy instead of an agriculture-driven one.
According to Claver Gatete, minister of finance and economic planning in Rwanda, in order to achieve this and tackle growth impediments, reforms have been put in place in the country.
Some of the reforms include a monthly community service programme called Umuganda, investment code revisions, enforcing the use of billing machines to ensure tax compliance and revising existing tax slabs.
”There is a recovery plan. We will work towards ensuring that impediments are solved by constantly monitoring progress and intervening where necessary,” said the minister.
