Agriculture sector contributed 31%, industry sector 16% and services sector contributed 46%.
Last year, agriculture production increased by 7%, industry by 4% and services by 8%.
The NISR Director-General, Yusuf Murangwa said that the quarter four of last year contributed enough to the growth of the GDP as it increased by 10.5%, here, he said agriculture, industry and services grew remarkably.
“Agricultural growth was boosted by good harvest of food crops in season B and C to 10%, industry to 10% and services to 11%,” he explained.
He said that the growth of industry sector was boosted by good production in mining and quarrying which contributed 51% and food processing industrial production grew by 16%.
Murangwa said that the production of textiles, clothing and leather industries grew by 19%. However, the production of industries making tobacco and beverages reduced by 8% while infrastructure was reduced by 1%.
Wholesaling and retailing trade grew by 19%, transport services grew by 16% and financial services grew by 14%.
According to the AU, it is expected that the leaders of Africa’s 55 countries will sign an agreement that will launch the AfCFTA at the Kigali meeting.
The AfCFTA will make Africa the largest free trade area created since the formation of the World Trade Organization, according to the pan-African bloc.
Mushikiwabo, also the government spokesperson, said the AU reform “is on and irreversible.” There have been some reluctance on the part of some countries but the progress is happening, she said.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame took over the chairmanship of the AU during the 30th AU summit in January to lead the supervision of the implementation of AU institutional reforms.
In 2016, African leaders decided that institutional reforms of AU were urgent given the role the AU is expected to play in achieving Africa’s Agenda 2063 vision of inclusive economic growth and development.
Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the three-year programme which aims at improving English language literacy and numeracy among students of primary one, two and three grades (P1, 2 and 3) is jointly being implemented by Education Development Trust, British Council and VSO, the three organisations which designed the programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Rwanda Education Board (REB).
Launching the programme, Minister of State in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr. Isaac Munyakazi commended DFID as an outstanding partner in Rwanda’s education and said BLF marks “a significant commitment in supporting the development of quality education.”
Munyakazi said that the programme comes at the right time as the recently concluded 15th National Leadership Retreat (Umwiherero) resolved improving quality of education among other resolutions.
“Building Learning Foundations Programme is a very welcome and timely intervention by UKaid. The programme will benefit Rwandan children by building the capacity of English and Mathematics teachers, enhancing school leadership for learning and strengthening the country’s education system,” he said.
British High Commissioner to Rwanda Joanne Lomas hailed Rwanda’s strides in education such as school enrolment at 99% and inclusive education that considers both genders and people with special needs.
“I am delighted to launch the new Building Learning Foundations project. Through this three-year nationwide project, the UK will provide £25.3 million for improved teaching and learning in lower primary grades 1-3 – with a focus on English and Mathematics. BLF is a strategic investment to ensure that all Rwandan children have the foundational skills needed to contribute to continued social and economic development,” she said.
The Programme running until 2021 will provide all English and Mathematics teachers in lower primary grades with toolkits which include self and peer-study books with audio and video material on an SD card, as well as continuous professional development linked to the toolkits. The Programme will also provide capacity development to all Sector and District education officers.
Teachers welcomed the programme saying that it will support them to lead nationwide school improvement.
Georgine Mukarugira, Headteacher of Saint Paul Muko Primary School in Rusizi District, said the programme has made her shift from being school administrators to leaders of learning as her school was considered in BLF’s pilot phase that started in July 2017.
“BLF comes to provide us with the skills and resources to lead on school improvement for learning achievements, to budget, manage school grants, staff and learners, and maintain effective reporting and data management,” she said.
Building Learning Foundations is built on three foundations to ensure sustainable impact by focusing on teacher development, school leadership for learning, and system strengthening. Each foundation has a focus on inclusive education practices for pupils with Special Educational Needs to ensure no child is left behind.
Mushikiwabo who is also the Government Spokesperson was speaking in Kigali on Tuesday in a press conference that revolved around different matters.
She said that violation of rights of Rwandan nationals living or working in Uganda started last year , denting relations of both countries.
“These problems started in Uganda where Rwandans faced hardships, some were imprisoned and others faced different troubles. Some were released and others are still imprisoned. Here in Rwanda we can’t destabilize a Ugandan, they are our relatives, we share many things, we share blood, we have relationships with many Ugandans,” she explained.
She said that when such problems take place, the government approaches the counterparts and discuss on their causes and ways to handle them.
Mushikiwabo said that Rwanda has observed that there is no reason for mistreatment of her citizens in Uganda.
“We as Rwanda, we didn’t notice any reason, we cannot wish to see a Ugandan person facing a problem in Rwanda,” she said.
“We wish to see both countries’ relationship back as normal. Our people need good relationship for their benefit,” she said.
Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Authority (RURA) Director-General, Lt Col Patrick Nyirishema said that the workshop is very important not just for Rwanda, the East African Region but also to the whole continent as a satellite is very critical and very important technology for communication.
He said that Africa is a continent that largely relies on satellites.
Nyirishema said that being able to launch a satellite, countries need first of all to understand and being ready to implement regulations.
“We have realized that the overall cost of launching satellite is going down. However it’s all just about the knowledge and the resources to launch a satellite,” he said.
The training is facilitated by experts from International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“We are very privileged to have ITU which agreed to send experts to train so that they can have complete understanding of what is required to be able to success for launch of a satellite from process of starting point,” he said.
He said the workshop is addressing the problem of how to secure arbitral location and the process you go through to launch a satellite.
Nyirishema said that the satellite is very important for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be able to have the means to link the various parts of the World and to monitor development, targets, to be able to collect dairy information, analyse it and helps to inform laws and regulation and all development interventions as captured within the SDGs.
Akim Falou Dine, expert from ITU said that the future of Africa in having a satellite is very brilliant for communication because Africa is very big and can help to access communication and get connected to the World.
Akim emphasized that the satellite can help in the implementation of SDGs where a poor country can access direct information.
“The satellite can also benefit in tele-medicine, tele-education, for GPS and for agriculture, it’s really important,” he said.
African countries which have managed to send a satellite in the airspace are Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt and Morocco.
Dr. Ali Simba, the Executive Secretary of East African Communication, a regional body in East African Community said that the region is looking at having a regional satellite and they are putting it in their strategic plan of the next three years to see what they can do to have own satellite for communication.
The office of the President has announced the meeting, but nothing was revealed about the discussion between Kagame and Macron.
On the other side, Kagame and Narendra agreed on ways to use in empowering institutions in both countries and trade.
On the sidelines of the summit also President Kagame met with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
In the ISA Summit, Kagame said that solar power is part of the answer to climate change. To speed adoption and get environmental benefits, it has to be as reliable and affordable as other energy sources.
He said that adopting it is not only to protect the environment, but also to protect people and their well-being.
Kagame was speaking Saturday in New Delhi, India in the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Founding Summit.
The alliance was launched at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015.
The Head of State said that the sunniest countries on Earth should not lack for energy. He said that the fact that they do is an unacceptable irony.
“It is fitting that more than half of countries that have signed and ratified the International Solar Alliance treaty are African,” he said.
“Solar power is part of the answer to climate change. To speed adoption and get environmental benefits, it has to be as reliable and affordable as other energy sources. We’re not just protecting the environment; we’re protecting people and their well-being,” he said.
To meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 targets, Kagame said that tremendous expansion in energy production is required in almost every African country.
The International Solar Alliance’s twin mission of facilitating technology transfer and innovative financing is timely, he added.
He urged that advances in solar energy production must be matched by the development of batteries capable of storing it and smart grids to distribute it to customers.
Using of the example of Rwanda, he said an 8.5MW solar power plant in Rwamagana has already helped to stabilise daytime power supply in Eastern Province. He said that the facility has also demonstrated that they can do much more.
“The one trillion dollars needed for solar investments globally in the coming years will obviously not come from governments alone. Public-private partnership is required. The International Solar Alliance’s proposed tools to mitigate credit risk send an important signal to the market that solar energy is a viable business,” he added.
He said, solar power will not address all of Africa’s energy needs, but it will continue to grow in importance as part of continent’s energy mix.
Kagame said that it’s important to continue to work together through the new institution and beyond, as a way to put collective resources and knowledge at the disposal of planet’s future.
The news of his death was reported, yesterday, Sunday.
Bishop Bimenyimana was born 22 June 1953, in Bumazi, Cyangugu.
He was ordained a priest on June 6, 1980; ordained to the sacerdotal class in Nyundo Parish; and was ordained as Bishop of Cyangugu on January 18, 1997. He was made an episcopal priest on March 16, 1997.
Mukarwego, 52, is a lecturer with nine years of experience.
Speaking in an interview with IGIHE, Mukarwego said that people with visual impairment are capable of reaching their full potential.
Mukarwego who got visual impairment in her childhood, had the first challenge that would have spoiled her future, was being born in refuge camp in Burundi. However, as luck was on her side she was supported by missionaries to join schools which were providing education to visually impaired children in Kenya. In Kenya, she studied primary and secondary school.
“It was not an easy journey because, after completing primary school, I joined a school without special care to children with visual impairment. But, I tried my best to catch up and performed well,” she said.
In 2008, she returned in the country, approached the Ministry of Education to find a job for her and was placed in UR/CE.
{{How she works?}}
“I prepare my lectures into Braille (a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired), but also have a person who translates them into normal letters and when I am teaching I project on the wall. I also use a student to change slides and I explain by using my reading from my braille notes,” she explained.
She says that at the beginning, different students from other classes used to join her class to see how a visually impaired lecturer teaches.
“They used to tell me that students from other classes come to see how I teach, but later on they found it usual and appreciated it,” she said.
{{How she attained PhD}}
Though she had been a lecturer, Mukarwego who was thirsty to study until she reaches the peak, in 2011, she started to apply for scholarship, though discouragements were a common occurrence.
“Even my boss at university used to tell me that they are no longer providing scholarships, but, I myself went to see the Minister of Education, he was Dr. Vincent Biruta by the time., I told him my problems and he asked me to leave him with my documents. Days later, they told me that my scholarship was approved and I chose to go to Kenya as there were people to facilitate me during my research,” she explained.
In 2015, Mukarwego was awarded a PhD and became the first woman with visual impairment to hold it in Rwanda.
“I was pleased by hearing that PhD in the category of visually impaired people was awarded to a Rwandan,” she said.
Mukarwego is now pleased of serving the country particularly in providing her contribution in education.
“I am very happy because I serve my nation, I teach children who will be tomorrow leaders of the country. I sometime encounter them and tell me that I taught them in KIE, former Kigali Institute of Education, now UR/CE” she said.
Mukarwego also is the head of women in National Union of People with Visual Impairment. She says that it pleases her to represent such category in providing ideas and lectures that benefits them.
She added that as the government has supported people from all categories, in line with promoting inclusive education, they should consider increasing equipment friendly with people with visual impairment. She says that the move will help persons with such problem perform well as normal persons.
“The reason behind having PhD is because I got basic requirements., if others were blessed to have such assistance even in vocational schools, they would develop themselves, a visually impaired woman would also develop,” she added.
With forty years of experience in the profession as she started to teach in 1978s, Nyirabakunzi says that passion, determination and love of work has been the essence behind serving long period in education.
Lives in Nyamugari Cell, Gasaka Sector in Nyamagabe District, the mother of five started the job after completing high school at Ecole Technique Feminine (ETF) in former Kibuye Prefecture now Karongi District where she learnt tailoring, cooking and hygiene studies.
She started the job at Ecole Familiale Mushubi in Nyamagabe by training girls in tailoring, cooking, working in garden farm, growing vegetables, hygiene and reproductive health among others.
While speaking to IGIHE reporter when she was at work, the passionate teacher said that she loves her profession as it is the foundation of her good-living conditions with her family.
Married in 1983, Nyirabakunzi’s husband died in 1996 leaving the family five children. Becoming the single mother, Nyirabakunzi had to manage the job with raising the children. She says that her job contributed enough in raising her children by providing with them all necessities.
“So, as you understand I continued to raise my children by using the salary from education, I paid their school fees until one graduated in University at the same time with others in secondary school and enjoyed good life conditions. I love this job and I rely on it,” she said.
She said that being a teacher motivated her to inculcate good discipline to her children despite different challenges.
“In my minds was that teacher’s children should study and be well-disciplined to the extent that they become others’ role model,” she said.
{{Outstanding teacher award}}
Nyirabakunzi says that love of work and hardworking enabled her to fulfill her responsibilities and was rewarded a cow by Rwanda Education Board (REB) in 2015.
“I was blessed to get a cow as an award for outstanding teacher, it all started from the school where my colleagues selected me as the best employee, proceeded to the sector and the district,” she explained.
She says that being outstanding teacher in the district was due to her good behaviors at work, timely reporting, having bests performing students and collaboration with colleagues among other factors.
Behind education job, Nyirabakunzi practice acquired skills from high school by tailoring and making wedding cakes among other things that can earn some money.
{{Nothing worth than tutoring a child from scratch}}
Nyirabagenzi says that the first thing that makes her happy is to make a child into a high profiled person.
“The thing which made me happy is to raise a child and become mature, I have taught in every class starting from Primary one to six, it’s a pleasure to tutor children and see them becoming leaders; when you meet them they call you their teacher, it’s really please us,” she boasts.
{{Challenges}}
Though she uses all her efforts to raise children into right people, Nyirabakunzi says that teachers still face challenges like small salary compared to prices on the market. She calls institutions in charge to consider revising the salary.
The teacher of Elementary Technology Sciences (ETS) subject says that shortage of school materials hampers their job, and lack of enough scholastic materials among children deters teachers from providing intended skills as required.
