The Government of Djibouti, through its Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority (DPFZA) has today signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Prime Economic Zones Company limited (PEZ) for the development of its 10-hectare piece of land located in the Kigali Special Economic Zone in Masoro, Kigali.

The agreement will see a joint venture firm established by the two institutions to develop infrastructure and advanced factory units on the land.

The land was offered to Djibouti by the Rwandan Government in 2013 in reciprocity to the 20 hectares of land Djibouti offered Rwanda at the Port of Djibouti.

Djibouti also gave Rwanda an additional 40 hectares of land in its new Free Economic Zone in 2017 for trade.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of RDB (Rwanda Development Board), Emmanuel Hategeka said:
“Our countries are enjoying strong bilateral relations and in addition to the signing of this MoU today, we have shared detailed plans with the Government of Djibouti on how we want to develop the land given to us in Djibouti.”

The Chairman of the DPFZA, Omar Hadi Aboubaker said:
“Our goal is to open up Africa to the rest of the world by connecting Rwanda, which is at the heart to a third international sea port in Djibouti after Mombasa and Dar-es- Salaam. We will develop toll roads connecting Djibouti to Kigali and upon developing the infrastructure and factory units in Kigali; we will look for investors to whom we shall lease out the land for trade.”

Jeanne Isabelle Gasana, the Managing Director of PEZ, said:
“The signing of the MoU today is a sign of the goodwill between our two nations. The next step will be to establish the joint venture, which will have the DPFZA as foreign investors in Rwanda as soon as next week and sharing and implementation of the land’s development plans.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION Sanny Ntayombya Head of Communications and Marketing, Rwanda Development Board sanny.ntayombya@rdb.rw