Government institutions asked to promote local products

Government institutions and agencies have been called upon to promote local products which they should be using in offices including furniture, instead of placing orders from outside the country, as a way of supporting the Made in Rwanda.

The 9th resolution during the recent 13th national leadership retreat stressed the need of changing Rwandans’ perceptions to embrace local products.

The Minister of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), Francois Kanimba requested government institutions to show exemplary practices by using Made in Rwanda products. He made the request yesterday during a press briefing.

“The decision has been taken at government level. The later requires all government institutions in need of furniture to buy them from Rwanda’s industries to promote ‘Made in Rwanda’ program,” he said.

Through the Made in Rwanda program, it is expected that much efforts will be concentrated in particular promotion of local industries processing local products including woods, milk, leather, minerals, textile and shoe manufacturing plants.
This Made in Rwanda program is in line with the plan to eradicate the importation of second hand clothes a cost of over USD 15 million every year.

Kanimba said that campaigns of mobilizing Rwandans to engage in production will concentrate on shaping perceptions and building their skills to produce unique and quality products.

Minister Kanimnba said that Rwanda won’t ban trade with other countries but will only import those products that cannot be locally produced.

The need to concentrate local products was also stressed recently during the African Transformation Forum held in Kigali where the UN representative in Africa for economic affairs requested African countries to increase industries manufacturing local products that are of good quality and unique.

It also emerged in the recent summit of East African heads who agreed to eradicate second hand cloth imports as a move to promote regional textile industries.

MINICOM has recently announced that imports have multiplied three times exported products.