Musanze, Northern Province, November 9, 2017 – was a successful day for public and private sector officials in Northern Province as Rwanda Development Board initiated the outreach campaign to enhance a domestic private sector led economy.

Top of the discussions were presentations by RDB and PSF officials about the existing business opportunities in the country, the fiscal and non- fiscal incentives provided by the Government of Rwanda in promoting an enabling business environment. This was later followed by an interactive Q&A session where a number of questions and challenges were addressed and a few others were taken into consideration.

Rwanda is now ranked as the 41^st easiest place to do business globally, 2^nd easiest in Africa and the 1^st in East Africa according to the World Bank Doing Business report, and business stakeholders in Northern Province were therefore encouraged to also take advantage of the favorable business environment in the country in order to expedite growth in all the key economic sectors.

Speaking at the forum, the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Development Board, Hon. Clare Akamanzi thanked the investors from Northern Province for their contribution to the overall national economic growth by having registered 1500 companies at RDB within the last three years and a total of 211 million of investment in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture

“Through this campaign initiative we plan to interact with business leaders and investors across the country in order to attract substantial domestic investment flows that will help the country be one of the most competitive economies not only in Africa but the entire globe

In his opening remarks, the Governor of Northern Province, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi expressed his gratitude to Rwanda Development Board for this initiative that will benefit many business owners, and pledged to fully support investors within the region in promoting and improving the investment environment in all the key economic sectors. Besides this, he stressed the importance of empowering youth as they form the backbone of future investments in the country.

“Our province has plenty of investment opportunities in all key economic sectors, mainly in tourism. We are also planning on engaging and equipping youth with entrepreneurial skills to make sure that our investment climate is sustainable.”

The RDB Aftercare program that seeks to enhance investor feedback is among the services that investors within the Northern Province were encouraged to resort for support during the implementation processes. The Investor Open Day that takes place every Friday at RDB headquarters is also part of this docket and all business owners were urged to attend frequently.

“We would like to support more domestic investments in the country because this is an important drive in creating more jobs and fostering a dynamic and vibrant private sector that plays a critical role in achieving Vision 2020’s goal of transforming Rwanda into a middle income country.” Ms. Clare Akamanzi added.

This campaign will continue in all the  4 provinces that make up Rwanda, as follows; November 23^rd, 2017 in Eastern Province, 7^th December in Western Province  and in January 2018 in Southern Province. The awareness campaign also targets registered investors in Districts, cooperative societies, small & medium enterprises, district opinion leaders, business development centers like BDF, among others.