The first ever Southern Province Investor Forum took place in Huye District this weekend with RDB encouraging members of both the local and international business community to invest in the province.

The Forum, which attracted over 300 people from the private sector, government and civil society, was organized by the Southern Province administration.

Speaking during the event, Winifred Ngangure, the RDB Head of Investment Promotion said: “There are vast profitable investment opportunities in a number of sectors ranging from mining, tourism and agriculture. The Province offers the right kind of business environment that investors can leverage on to successfully do business.”

Investment opportunities in the Southern Province include:

-Mining: investors have the opportunity to explore areas for coltan, cassiterite and wolfram. Furthermore, there is an opportunity to establish a wolframite processing plant for Rwanda and the region.

-Agriculture and food processing: The Province presents a number of competitive advantages in land availability, fertile soils, favorable climate and farmers’ experience in specific crops that investors could capitalize on. The government identified two ready-to-invest projects which include the Huye Animal Feed Mill and Kigembe Fish Farm that the Government is looking privatize. Bee, coffee, grain and avocado farming also present numerous opportunities as well.

-Tourism: The Southern Province has their own tourism value proposition with over 70 attractions inventoried in the Heritage Corridor marketing proposal currently being developed. Kamonyi District is an ideal destination for domestic and regional tourism, Ruhango is a key contributor to religious tourism, Huye has the potential to become the center point of the heritage corridor for cultural tourism, Nyaruguru has a pilgrim site with potential to attract both regional and international tourists, Muhanga is the entry point of the heritage corridor with a wide variety of attractions, Nyanza has the cultural experience based on historic heritage, Gisagara has potential of building on its abundance of natural beauty and bird watching sites and Nyamagabe is the gateway to the Nyungwe National Park, combining nature, cultural and heritage experiences.