Prime Minister announces new scheme to help boost agriculture financing
The Rwandan government has earmarked $350 million new funding program aimed to increase agriculture financing in the next five years, the Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said in a report presented to parliament on Monday.
The project to be implemented in selected districts of the country targets 890,000 households, composed of mainly women and youth, the report showed.
Addressing parliament in the capital city Kigali, Ngirente said the pilot project is to be implemented in 16 districts of the country and would help Rwandan farmers to access agricultural loans at a low interest rate.
“Lending by commercial banks to agriculture and livestock farming remains low, accounting for only 4.8% of loans,” he said.
He added that it is in this regard that the government has rolled out the project to help farmers to access loans at an interest rate of as low as 8 percent and boost agriculture financing.
He cited insufficient agriculture financing, lack of insurance and insufficient irrigation among the challenges the new project seeks to address.
The agricultural value chains set to benefit from the new funding include rice, maize, Irish potatoes, cassava, beans and horticulture farming.
Some 20 million U.S. dollars will be allocated to agriculture insurance, according to the prime minister.
Ngirente said the project is part of the several measures the government has adopted to scale up agricultural production and ensure food security.
Rwanda’s agriculture export revenue increased from about 510 million U.S. dollars in the 2017-2018 fiscal year to 640 million in 2021-2022, according to official data.
