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Coming in : Minister Ildephonse Musafiri (L) and RAB Director General Telesphore Ndabamenye
President Paul Kagame has appointed Dr. Ildephonse Musafiri as new Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resource Development(Minagri), replacing Geraldine Mukeshimana who has been at the realm of the ministry since 2014.
Before the new appointment announced this March 2, 2023, Musafiri was serving as Minister of State at the same ministry since August 2022. Earlier on, he served as head of strategy and government policy committee in the Office of the President.
He is a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Rwanda, and a professor at the University of Rwanda, Department of Economics and Business, where he taught and was the head of the Department of Economics.
He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn in Germany.
Garardine Mukeshimana rewarding best performer at Agriculture Expo 2022
Musafiri has become a Minister at a time when inflation in the country has been attributed to shortfalls in the agricultural sector especially low harvests in seasonal food crops and complaints of failure to manage fertilizer supply, milk processing and supply chains let alone shortage of cattle cross breeds to up the milk supply on an increase market demand locally.
Also new change affected the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Board(RAB).
Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye as the Director General of RAB replacing Dr. Alexandre Rutikanga who was appointed last and approved by Senate on this post.
Ndabamenye is a seasoned civil servant who worked as a senior official at RAB for years before heading to One Acre Fund since a couple of months ago.
The Senate, just as other oversight institutions (Chamber of Deputies and The Office Auditor General) have not been particularly proud of performance at RAB.
Alexandre Rutikanga served as DG at RAB for barely one month
For instance, Senators say that RAB has had a bad history and the turnover of leadership where some didn’t spend more than six months yet on appointment they were so excited about the job.
“We want to know if they have the courage to work with others, especially at RAB where we see issues of poor resource and finance management. We only have them telling us that they are qualified but we don’t see if they are ready to perform,” Mupenzi said during the approval of the former DG.
A Senate Committee also pointed out that RAB has human and financial resources management issues which are at the core of the underperformance of a key institution in the country.
The change of guard in the agriculture sector comes at a key point in time when President Kagame calls upon leaders to do their job right to address citizen’s concerns and drive the country’s growth agenda or get fired.
At the just concludes National Dialogue Council- Umushyikirano both Dr Musafiri and Mukeshimana were given time to talk about issues affecting agriculture sector.
