{"id":55196,"date":"2025-08-11T15:25:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/minister-mukazayire-reflects-on-her-leadership-path-and-sport-s-role-in-rwanda\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T11:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T11:01:28","slug":"minister-mukazayire-reflects-on-her-leadership-path-and-sport-s-role-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/minister-mukazayire-reflects-on-her-leadership-path-and-sport-s-role-in-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Mukazayire reflects on her leadership path and sport\u2019s role in Rwanda\u2019s transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a conversation with Daniel Bernard, co-founder of Ride For Unity, she shared how her personal journey mirrors Rwanda\u2019s own recovery\u2014rooted in unity, visionary leadership, and accountability.<\/p>\n

Ride For Unity is a global movement using cycling to build bridges, empower communities, and create lasting social impact. <\/p>\n

Mukazayire\u2019s life story is inseparable from Rwanda\u2019s own. Born and raised in the country, she studied economics at the University of Rwanda and went on to earn a master\u2019s degree. <\/p>\n

A lifelong athlete, she played basketball in secondary school, at university, and briefly for the national team. Even today, she remains active through CrossFit and weightlifting. \u201cSport has always been part of my day-to-day,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

Her journey, however, is not just one of personal achievement but a reflection of Rwanda\u2019s resilience. \u201cAs a Rwandan, it\u2019s difficult to dissociate one\u2019s journey from the country\u2019s,\u201d she noted. Emerging from the devastation of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda faced a complex reality: survivors, returning refugees, fractured families, and a destroyed economy.<\/p>\n

Mukazayire\u2019s own family history mirrors this complexity, with some members as survivors and others, including her mother, involved in the genocide. \u201cI had voices telling me you cannot make it,\u201d she admitted. Yet, Rwanda\u2019s visionary leadership provided a platform for her and countless others to rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis leadership,\u201d she emphasized, \u201cinstilled hope and equal opportunity. The vision of the leadership that picked up all the pieces set a path for me and so many others to be where we are.\u201d Through unity, forgiveness, and reconciliation, Rwanda created an ecosystem where merit and hard work could thrive.<\/p>\n

She acknowledges that her rise would not have been possible without the post-1994 transformation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all, including me, got an opportunity to live again, to see hope, or see a belief that there can be a future because of a leadership that had a vision,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

That vision, she added, was rooted in unity, reconciliation, and rebuilding\u2014a national foundation that created equal opportunities and allowed merit to drive progress.<\/p>\n

Mukazayire credits her achievements to both the environment Rwanda has created and personal discipline. <\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence is realizing the unique talent in you\u2026 Competence means putting in the work\u2026 Consistency equals discipline,\u201d she explained. For her, these values are as essential in life as they are in sport.<\/p>\n

\"Nelly<\/figure>\n

Mukazayire believes Rwanda\u2019s success lies in its ability to \u201clive what you say.\u201d Governance, she noted, is anchored in accountability through systems like the National Dialogue\u2014where citizens and leaders evaluate the nation\u2019s progress\u2014citizen outreach visits where ministers answer directly to the public, and performance contracts that hold leaders to their promises. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve understood that Rwanda is what we\u2019ve got. There\u2019s no us without Rwanda,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While Rwanda has made remarkable economic progress\u2014from a GDP collapse in 1994 to over $1,000 per capita \u2014the challenges ahead are significant. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout economic transformation, without alleviating poverty, you\u2019ll still be struggling,\u201d she cautioned. The country\u2019s ambitions are bold, targeting $4,000 GDP per capita by 2035 and $12,000 by 2050. Achieving this, she said, will require strategic investment, import substitution, job creation, and harnessing the energy of the nation\u2019s youthful population.<\/p>\n

On sport\u2019s role in this vision, Mukazayire considers it as a key driver of transformation. She cited studies showing that every dollar invested in sport can generate $124 through its ripple effect on other sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur leadership has been clear that this is a sector where you have to invest before you attract,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Mukazayire also spoke of sport as an engine for national transformation, underpinned by her three guiding principles: confidence, competence, and consistency. <\/p>\n

She highlighted Rwanda\u2019s \u201cinvest before you attract\u201d approach, exemplified by facilities like BK Arena builtn in just six months, alongside ongoing efforts in talent development and the growth of a vibrant sports-business ecosystem.<\/p>\n

{{Women empowerment}}<\/p>\n

Mukazayire is particularly proud of the country\u2019s progress in empowering women in sport. Female referees, coaches, and technical staff are now common. <\/p>\n

Through the \u201cIsonga\u201d program, schools must field both boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 teams in multiple disciplines. Yet she stresses that quotas alone, such as the constitutional requirement for at least 30 percent female representation in decision-making positions, are not enough. <\/p>\n

\u201cAre we building ourselves to take up those opportunities and being bold enough to know we can do it\u2026 Are they confident enough to seize opportunities they have, to build their skills and their abilities and knowledge to take up the 30%? That\u2019s the biggest challenge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Mukazayire, serving as Minister of Sports is about harnessing the unifying power of sport to inspire, transform lives, and position Rwanda as a beacon of possibility for Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nelly Mukazayire has served as Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Sports since December 2024. Her career, spanning roles in the Office of the President where she served as Deputy Chief of Staff for 10 years, the Rwanda Convention Bureau, and the Rwanda Development Board, culminated in her current position, where her passion for sport and dedication to service converge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000092437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":{"id":2000092437,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mukaza.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000092437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55196"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55196"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}