The question was raised yesterday when Minagri Minister, Geraldine Mukeshimana and Trade and Industry Minister, Vincent Munyeshyaka was appearing before the MPs’ plenary session responding to several questions regarding their ministries which were raised in different parliamentary committees’ reports.
Among the problems raised are irrigation machines which provide law production compared to the budget that was spent on them, agro-collection centers and post-harvest handling practices.
MP Marie Josée Kankera questioned whether continuing rotation and dismissal of officials in RAB would not be the reason behind poor performance of agriculture sector.
“Changing an official who does not implement responsibilities is normal, we thank for government efforts to hold into account leaders and dismiss those who fail to implement their responsibilities. But I want to stress RAB officials rotation. Particularly, I think that it affects our production and attracts these problem in agriculture,” she said.
She said that every official entering the institution takes time to analyze problems and initiate measures to solve them.
“A number of PhD holders who were appointed in that board did not last there, doesn’t this attract agricultural and animal resources’ problems that the board should have been responding to? I would like to know whether there are measures to make management of that board stable, because I think that when the management is working properly, all things go well,” she said.
Minister Mukeshimana tried to explain some measures that were taken to respond to problems in agriculture but the plenary was closed before she spoke about the problem with RAB management.
{{RAB officials dismissal }}
The extra-ordinary cabinet meeting of January 19th removed Dr. Marc Cyubahiro Bagabe from RAB Director General Position and replaced him by Dr. Patrick Karangwa.
In November last year, Prime Minister, Dr. Eduard Ngirente dismissed four RAB officials including former Deputy Director General, Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa, the Head of Land Husbandry, Irrigation and Mechanization, Innocent Nzeyimana, the Head of Corporate Services Division Violet Nyirasangwa, and the Head of Finance Theogene Bimenya.
Mureshyankwano was speaking last week following the Rwanda Governance Board’s (RGB) Citizen Report Card which ranked five Southern Province districts among the ten poor performers.
Citizen Report Card is RGB’s annual publication which is produced to ascertain the levels of community satisfaction with regard to services rendered.
Among eight districts that make up the province, on national level Kamonyi is the 8th with 74.6%, Nyanza 9th with 74.0% and Muhanga the 16th with 70.6%.
Other districts are Huye 22nd with 68.5%; Nyaruguru 23rd with 67.9%; Ruhango 25th with 67.3%; Gisagara 27th with 65.7% and Nyamagabe 29th with 64.6%.
It is against these findings that Mureshyankwano requested all mayors to work towards improvement.
“Let’s agree from now that it is the last time to come in last places altogether, let it be the last time. Go and serve people,” she said.
Particularly on agriculture and animal resources services, Mureshyankwano said that bad services are a result of local leaders’ poor attraction of people-participation in programmes.
“Respective mayors and vice-mayors, I will not withstand this unless we see improvements in your districts, use sectors agronomists to promote farming. Sectors Executive Secretaries should not allow people to be working in offices at the expense of field work and service delivery, you should stand up and we work towards serving the people” she said.
In 2016/2017 performance contracts, four Southern Province’s districts were also ranked among last 10 districts on national level.
Based on performance contracts and RGB’s Citizen Report Card findings, Mureshyankwano said that it is time to re-evaluate themselves and identify where to invest much efforts.
His involuntary leapfrog into maturity, that saw him partly fend for the family and himself, only got with him when he was thirteen after his father had passed on. He now lives with his mother and relatives, relying on a host of activities, including farming and providing labour at a neighbouring artisanal mine in Gitwa village.
He says that their yields from the small family land could not allow them get surplus produce for sale to meet basic domestic needs.
“Sometimes we used to sleep on empty stomachs. In the morning, we had to walk to school, hungry and hopeless,”
With hunger biting most of the time, hoping against hope seemingly an insurmountable task, going to school became a luxury in Niyodusenga’s eyes and experience.
“I decided to drop out of school. My mother was, too, of little help. Then I started to look for what to do. I joined my friends working in nearby illegal mines in Gitwa village, who, I supposed, were earning enough money to finance their luxuries,” he said.
Niyodusenga, is one of the many children that have dropped out of school in Rutongo Primary School with many continuing to follow suit–male and female alike.
Take an example of Yvette Tuyishimire, 18, from Gitwa village who was studying at Rutongo Primary school and dropped out at fifteen in 2015 after completing Primary six and started fetching water to use in mineral washing.
Tuyishimire says that she was influenced by her female colleagues who had been working there.
“After completing primary six, my family was unable to pay school fees for me to proceed with secondary education. When I was home, my colleagues used to tell me that they are earning enough money in mining-related activities, so I finally joined them,” she explained.
Tuyishimire says that they used to fetch water five kilometers away from mining quarries. She used to fetch at least 15 cans a day from 5:00am to 2:00pm. She used to earn Rwf150 per jerrycan , making over Rwf2000 a day.
“I used to come back home always very tired. My colleagues who used to enter inside the mining quarries to dig faced sexual assaults; like where men wanted to sleep with them,” she said.
Currently, both children are back to training, acquiring vocational skills, thanks to a local non-government organization Syndicat des Travailleurs aux Services des Droits Humain (STRADH) which support them and other colleagues.
Niyodusenga and Tuyishimire are among the tens of thousands of children that drop out of school every year. School drop-outs are a concern that touches parents, local leaders, head teachers and children.
{{Child labor vs adult unemployment}}
The active antagonism between the quest for knowledge and the bogging effects of poverty, the clamor for survival and the apparent availability of jobs on farms, mines, lakes and rivers (the subsistence hubs) do create a complex situation that requires further scrutiny and study than a mere news article.
The situation becomes even more complex when one considers that it’s not grown up adults that seek jobs from those subsistence hubs but their children, instead, do. Is it because children are cheaper and easy to exploit? Is it owing to their physical prowess, better than the adults who are mostly widowed and elderly? Is it because adult labour cannot be mobilized across geographical distances? Nevertheless, has any study been carried out to establish whether there are no able-bodied women and men in the localities to work those subsistence hubs or is it because labour is in short supply in such poles?
These and more salient questions require more than a mere news article.
{{Peerism or misconception }}
But at least we can contend In Kabacuzi sector of Muhanga, the causes seem to be as many as the dropouts themselves. Poverty and parents’ poor mindsets, however, seem to be the most dominant.
Judithe Dusabemariya a resident of Gitwa Village (a village with many Mining quarries both legal and illegal) says that poverty forces many children to drop out of school.
Dusabemariya has two sons working in the Gitwa mines. She says she could not afford sending them to school after completing primary.
“There are children working in mines and can earn some money to support themselves in getting the basic needs. This entices many others (peerism) to drop out of school and join the wagon,” says Dusabemariya.
“My sons were clever in class, but I didn’t have money to pay for their school fees in secondary school yet they were strong enough to do menial jobs for money and food. That’s how they ended up joining mining activities,” she said.
Marie Odette Nyirahabimana, the Head Teacher of Groupe Scholaire Butare, in Kabacuzi Sector of Muhanga District says that children from poor families are easily enticed by the available jobs, the money and parents’ inability to support them. But peer influence from those that joined the mines before and seem to have improved their welfare is very magnetic to pulling others.
“When a child spends two hours there and gets over Rwf5,000 it attracts many to join these activities,” she said.
“However, there is also a mindset problem behind dropouts, because not all children from needy families do drop out of schools,” she added.
The Executive Secretary of Butare Cell in Kabacuzi Sector, Plautilla Uwanyirigira says poor mindset among parents is another big challenge.
“Though the problem is being addressed some parents send their children to work the mines and bring them money. There might be poverty issues, but all children from poor families do not drop out of school. It is a mindset problem really,” she said.
{{State of school dropouts}}
In 2015/2016 academic year, in Muhanga District figures show that the dropout rate was at 4.8 per cent in Primary, 6.0 per cent in lower secondary and 0.3 per cent in upper secondary education.
In 2015-2016 Kabacuzi Sector identified 244 children who dropped out of school to engage in different forms of labour in mines.
The Kabacuzi Sector Education Officer, Servand Nshimiyumuremyi told IGIHE that in 2017 they had 108 students who dropped out of school in primary and 55 in secondary at the sector level.
Marie Odette Nyirahabimana, the Head Teacher of Groupe Scholaire Butare, in Kabacuzi Sector of Muhanga District said that last year, the school had 40 dropouts, 18 in primary and 22 in secondary.
Nyirahabimana explained that the numbers of dropouts are mostly higher in primary and Secondary School’s Ordinary level. She said that students in upper secondary continue to study as they desire to get diploma.
She said that in a move to end school drop outs, they always collaborate with parents and take students back to school.
School dropouts is not a challenge of Muhanga alone.
Recently, the Director of Education in Ngororero District, Protogène Niyonsenga said that students estimated between 3000-4000 from different Primary schools in the district dropped out of schools due to different reasons.
In Ngororero, at Groupe Scholaire Bwira alone, they registered 186 drop-outs in 2017.
{{Efforts}}
According to the 2013 Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP), the Ministry of Education is targeting to improve the efficiency of the education system, by reducing repetition and dropout rates.
They targeted to reduce the dropout rate from 10.9% in 2012 to 5.7% in 2017.
At lower and upper secondary level, the dropout rate was targeted to fall from 13.1% in 2012 to 11.3% in 2017 and from 2.4% to 2.2% respectively.
Speaking about the progress towards reducing school dropouts, the State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Isaac Munyakazi said that through the current national wide education campaign, fighting against anything that could lead to school dropouts is among their targets.
He said that through the campaign, they are gathering last year’s school drop outs numbers though he believes that they were reduced.
“Based on how students are congested in classrooms, I can affirm that most of them have really returned back,” he said.
About children who drop out of school and involve in income generating activities, Munyakazi said that the ministry continues to fight child exploitation.
He said that the Ministry and partners have committed to conduct follow-up on students who miss classes and know the reason behind, he said the approach helps to take back to school these with ambitions to drop out.
“Regardless of whether a child is of working age, when they are ought to have been to school, we order them to. We balance the priority between class and money. If the government constructed schools for children to study, why should people exploit them, for the government we care about benefits of the child than age,” he said.
Figures from the Ministry of Education show that in the Academic Year 2015/16, the national dropout rate in primary schools was 5.7 per cent, 6.5 per cent in lower secondary and 2.5 per cent in upper secondary education.
{{Child labour in other sectors}}
It has been observed that some children drop out of school and engage in child labour in different economic activities including; agriculture, fishery, mining and working as domestic servants , among others.
For example in Nyabihu District, there used to appear some cases of children working in tea plantations. However, currently, officials say that the problem was reduced.
“That problem has been terminated as some people who were caught involving children in these activities were penalized,” said Bosco Vumera, the Nyabihu District Education Officer.
According to Jean Damascène Gasarabwe, the Managing Director of Nyabihu Tea Estate the problem ended ten years ago. He said that their system cannot allow them employing children.
“These working in tea plantation are paid on bank accounts and should have identity cards. We also pay social security fees for them, so, the process makes it clear that we can’t employ children,” he explained.
He said that tea companies need to have different international standards where they are awarded after conducting different audits. He said that a company employing children could not get any certificate.
“We are no longer having a problem with employees as the price of tea has increased and provide good salaries to people with working ages,” he added.
According to Gasarabwe, children who can be found today in such activities work as ‘family labours’ where they help parents in their own tea plantation farms during the holidays.
Emile Mukunzi, the Education Officer in Bugesera District told IGIHE that cases of children who used to work in fishery have ended as fishers work from cooperatives which have standards to follow.
He said that students used to work in rice farms, but following government’s efforts to end school dropouts, the case was ended.
“We used to see those cases in 2016 and people who were found employing children were fined,” he added.
{{Penalized }}
The above claims of child labour elimination not withstanding, the Ministry of Labour (MIFOTRA) early February 2018 announced that 352 people and institutions were were arrested and penalized by law in the year 2016/2017 for engaging child labour.
The officer in charge of Social Security and Child Labour Control at MIFOTRA, Damien Nzamwita says that the monitoring exercise will continue until they eliminate child labour.
In the statement released last week by the bank, CBA says that it has received the requisite regulatory approval by National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), Bank of Uganda and Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), effectively concluding the sale and purchase agreement between CBE and dfcu signed in June 2017.
The statement signed by CBA Group Managing Director, Isaac Awuondo, CBA says that their entry into Rwanda is a significant milestone in their long-term strategic aspirations to expand its existing business operations in key markets within Africa and offer innovative customers and solutions that help customers to achieve their financial goals and grow their wealth.
“In particular, this move affords CBA an opportunity to participate and support in the country’s economic growth agenda by providing the full array of CBA’s financial services to the Rwandan market, aligned with the broader CBA Group objective of being a significant financial services player in Africa,” reads the statement.
Munyeshyaka was speaking to IGIHE on Friday while responding to the claims raised last week by the Acting Director of the Office of Economic and Regional Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs in the Department of State, Harry Sullivan who said that East African Community (EAC) decision to ban importation and use of second-hand clothes commonly known as ‘Caguwa’ will affect thousands who will lose jobs.
Harry was speaking in a telephonic press briefing with different African media houses about the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Asked whether US President Donald Trump’s administration slogan ‘America First’ and the ban of second-hand clothes in the EAC which America opposed, would not be a matter of conflict of interests, Harry explained that the problem with the programme is that it would affect many people to lose jobs.
He said that they understand that the EAC desire to build a domestic textile sector, but emphasized that the EAC’s ban on imports of used clothing will not help achieve that.
“First, it’s job-destroying. The proposed ban will hurt an estimated 300 thousand men and women that work in the used clothing business all across the East African Community and it will also negatively impact at least 40 thousand U.S. jobs in the used clothing sector in the United States,” he said.
{{Rwanda denounces claims}}
Munyeshyaka said that banning second-hand clothes is in line with the country’s programme to develop industry sector.
He said that the industry sector comes to the third place in contributing to the development of Rwanda’s economy with 16% after services covering 47% and agriculture 30%.
“Under the move to develop the economy of the country, we need to develop our industry sector. As you know no country has developed without investing in the development of industries,” he said.
Munyeshyaka said that industries making leather products and textile industries are creating many jobs.
By using C&H Garments Rwanda as an example, Munyeshyaka said that the industry has employed over 1500 employees and under the new phase expected to start soon, they will employ over 4,000 people.
“When you look at medium industries and cooperatives of tailors from across the country, there are many jobs, so these statistics of losing 300,000 jobs in EAC are false. I don’t know about their country’s loss of employment may be they have counted well, but for us we have taken a good position,” he said.
{{AGOA cannot develop our industries.}}
Munyeshyaka said that since they entered in AGOA, Rwanda only exported handicrafts products which did not exceed USD one million for the country per year.
“Actually our business with USA under AGOA is 0.05%. It is a small business which we cannot rely on and develop our industries,” he said.
As a way to promote locally made products, particularly textile and shoes industries, Rwanda has hiked taxes on imported second-hand clothes and shoes in order to weaken them on local market, but promote locally made products.
Munyeshyaka said that currently made in Rwanda programme is creating between 20,000 and 21,000 of jobs per year.
At least 46 educationists including Sector Education Officers, head-teachers, deputy head-teachers and teachers are believed to have lost their jobs on February 2nd when they were summoned by Nyagatare District’s executive committee led by the district’s Mayor George Mupenzi.
Faustin Harerimana, the General Secretary of Rwanda Teachers’ Syndicate told IGIHE on Friday that his office has sent a letter to the district’s mayor seeking talks with a target to see the teachers placed back in their jobs. He said the union considers suing the district if the talks falter, adding that other two districts have so far been defeated in courts for mistreating teachers.
“It is a big problem to see 46 teachers in one district resigning on the same day, doing it from the same venue and with exactly the same wording in their resignation letters. It is unclear that all had their personal reasons for resignation as district’s officials are saying,” said Harerimana, adding that the voice of 46 victims should be heard or else the justice will be rendered by the court.
Some of the victims sent a letter to the district five days after their resignation asking for recovering their jobs, saying that they were forced to resign.
“To the mayor of Nyagatare District, we ask you to place us back in our education jobs and ignore the letter you drafted for us and forced us to sign on 02/02/2018 stating that we resign for our personal reasons yet we still love the job and we are able to do it,” reads part of the letter copied to and received by three government ministries and other institutions last Friday.
Some of the victims who preferred anonymity for fear of retribution told IGIHE that they were told to be at the district’s office at 6 am for a meeting but there was no meeting until 1 pm when district officials flanked by security forces grabbed the teachers’ mobile phones and started receiving one by one in the office telling each of the allegations they had to apologise for.
“We were threatened to be jailed, some of us signed right away, others refused and were detained in the transit centre. The showdown went up to midnight,” narrates the teacher.
Mayor Mupenzi told the press last Thursday that all the teachers resigned by their will after being told of their bad deeds.
“Nobody was forced to resign. We summoned them as the district’s executive committee and education officers. We told them their faults, they willingly decided to resign and we thank them for that. We did it to safeguard the quality of education,” he said.
Mupenzi said the teachers’ faults include misconduct at work, reporting at work when they were drunk, poor hygiene and bad school’s management among others.
Gatete made the remarks on Thursday while opening the 14th Development Partners retreat in Rubavu District, Western Province.
With respect to delivering on the targets in the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) and the Vision 2050, the Minister emphasized the very important role the private sector is envisaged to play as the engine of economic growth and as such urged development partners to move beyond traditional financing and consider new and innovative ways to finance the private sector.
The Minister’s message was echoed by both co-chairs of the Development Partners Group.
Yasser El-Gammal, Country Manager of the World Bank appreciated the progress made in elaborating the National Strategy for Transformation and the linkages with the long term Vision 2050. He further reiterated the commitment of the development partners to work with government to identify and concretize innovative financing opportunities to achieve the ambitious agenda.
“We need to find ways to mobilize financing in different forms and evolve from the changing financing landscape because what Rwanda wants is unconventional and ambitious which is very well deserved and justified,” said El-Gammal.
Fode Ndiaye, UN Resident Coordinator pointed out that Rwanda will require more private sector engagement and investment, more human capital development, and more innovative finance to successfully implement the NST1.
“In addition to increase private sector involvement, Rwanda needs to mobilize more domestic resources, given its vision of moving towards upper middle and high-income country status and its policy of more self-reliance,” Mr. Ndiaye said.
IMF mission Chief Laure said Rwanda is commended for maintaining macroeconomic stability in a volatile global environment characterized by declining development assistance. In particular, she commended the prudent management of debt. Ms. Laure encouraged initiatives to further consolidate gains made in different areas. She recommended continued scaling up of domestic resource mobilization and finding innovative financing to match the development ambitions
Through the Vision 2050, Rwanda intends to become an upper income country by 2035 and attain a higher income status by 2050.
Development Partners Retreat is an annual senior-level retreat aimed at bringing together development partners and government to review progress in the development agenda and develop a common understanding on the medium and long term development plans and strategies. It also examines and proposes ways to enhance the role of Development Partners in supporting the country to achieve its development agenda.
The retreat serves as an opportunity to address issues that may have not been tackled at the quarterly Development Partners Coordination Group (DPCG) meetings and to have an open dialogue between Government and its development partners on the development priorities and challenges in meeting them.
Held under the theme “Partnership for Rwanda’s Transformational Agenda” this year’s two-day retreat is discussing critical components that would contribute to the achievement of the Vision 2050 and the NST. These include human capital, boosting exports in form of Made in Rwanda and strengthening development partnerships, collaboration and synergies among others.
Minister of Education, Dr. Eugene Mutimura announced the move on Friday while speaking to the parliamentary standing committee on Education, ICT, Culture and Youth.
Mutimura said that the increase of bursary is in line with the government’s commitment to sustain the welfare of students.
According to Mutimura, new changes will take effect in next year’s National Budget starting from July.
On school fees, Mutimura said that science students will pay Rwf2 million from the current Rwf900,000 while humanities students will pay Rwf800,000 from Rwf600,000.
The call was made yesterday in a meeting that brought together RDF and EJVM. EJVM is a regional security organ operating under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
The Army Commandant in Northern Region, Brig. Gen. Eugene Nkubito said that FARDC defied RDF’s basements in Terimbere village, Mugari Cell of Shingiro Sector on Tuesday at 7:00am.
He said that both countries’ borders are well controlled so as to avoid armed groups like Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) among others that could destabilize the security of the region.
Nkubito said that the attack attracted soldiers from both sides to exchange fire which led to death of three DRC soldiers and others left their weapons.
Rwanda’s intelligence was informed and alerted Congo’s counterparts and then the fire ceased.
RDF called on EJVM to reach the field and investigate the reason behind defying Rwanda’s sovereign and provide the findings from investigations.
RDF also denounced any allegation to have defied DRC’s border as their basement have been there since five years ago.
Nkubito said that Rwanda prioritizes good relationship between both countries, but added that they will not tolerate anyone who will attempt to destabilize national security.
This was announced Tuesday during a panel discussion on female empowerment through social enterprises, hosted by Kate Spade New York, featuring Rwandan-based company, Abahizi Rwanda.
In opening remarks, RDB CEO Clare Akamanzi noted that Kate Spade New York has brought global expertise and combined it with trained Rwandan women artisans to make globally competitive products.
“Kate Spade New York represents what RDB looks forward to seeing other companies implement in the future. In 2017, Kate Spade New York exported over 1.3 million dollars. Just to give you some perspective, since inception, Rwandan Tea has exported 17 million dollars per year. Now, Kate Spade New York’s 1.3 million dollars within the first three years are largely impressive compared to the 17 million dollars from a company that has been around since colonial time,” she said.
She further expressed her confidence in new milestones to be set in the future.
The handmade tote bags and accessories, which have been produced since 2014, are part of Kate Spade New York’s on purpose program that works with the Rwandan-based company Abahizi Rwanda in Masoro. The program launched in 2013, and since then has employed more than 200 artisans who produce luxury handmade bags and accessories.
According to the Kate Spade New York team, the purpose of the initiative is to give women in Masoro economic and social empowerment and thus transform the surrounding community.
Speaking with IGIHE, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer of Kate Spade New York, Mary Beech, emphasized that the project was not charity but a business model to create jobs for talented women, and offering them a way to participate in the global marketplace.
“We believe that empowering women is a key component to economic growth and community transformation. We are very encouraged to see women who work at Abahizi Rwanda creating opportunities and change for themselves and others in their community,” said Mary Beech.
The Rwandan-made luxury bags were also spotted at the 75th Golden Globes Awards; this itself is a significant step in the global outreach of made-in-Rwanda products.
