President Paul Kagame has today held talks with the World Bank Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
KT Press has learnt that the Bank announced $1 billion extra support to Rwanda in the next five years.
The funds, according to World Bank officials, will support irrigation of 14,000 hectares of land and improve rural roads enabling farmers to connect to new markets and increase their family incomes.
Currently, World Bank funds a range of nine local and six regional projects in Rwanda worth $681 million.
The key projects include; Rwanda Electricity Access project worth $70 million, Water Harvesting and Hillside Irrigation ($69 million), $50 million in support of the country’s social protection policy, $22 million to support transport sector development as well as $45 million for feeder road construction to improve rural infrastructure in Rwanda.
Tony Nsanganira, state Minister for agriculture told KT Press that support from the world bank has enabled irrigation of about 30, 000 ha of land, 25, 000 ha of marshlands and 5, 000 ha of hillside.
“We have a target of 100, 000 ha of irrigated land by the year 2020,” he said.
Nsanganira added that maize, rice and vegetables are currently the major crops that are benefiting from such projects across the country.
World Bank MD,Sri Mulyani says she was impressed by the way the Bank’s funded projects benefit rural communities in Rwanda.
Sri Mulyan arrived in Rwanda on May 13. She said that she was impressed by Rwanda’s competence in utilizing donor-funds.
She said this after touring the Bank’s supported farming projects in Rwanda’s districts of Nyabihu and Musanze in North and Western Provinces.
The projects support rural farmers and ex-combatants-formerly FDLR militia, a terrorist group responsible for 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda.
According to Ministry of Finance, the World Bank is Rwanda’s largest donor that has for the past two decades supported the country’s development agenda.
