Yesterday 17th July, 2017, The Government of Rwanda and the World Bank signed a $120 million (about Rwf100 billion) financial agreement to support a three year priority skills development program for growth across multiple sectors of the economy in Rwanda.

At the signing ceremony, the World Bank was represented by Yasser El- Gammal, Country Manager for the World Bank Group in Rwanda while the Government of Rwanda was represented by Hon. Amb. GATETE Claver, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. Also in attendance were Hon. Judith UWIZEYE, Minister for Public Service and Labour and Hon. Dr. Papias MUSAFIRI, Minister of Education and other Senior Government Officials.

The loan will mainly focus on priority sectors, including manufacturing, energy, transport and logistics, among others.

The programme will ensure provision of quality skills that are needed on the labour market for sustained employability,” Uwizeye Judith; Minister of Public Service and Labour said.

According to Judith Uwizeye, more resources are needed to build capacity in sectors of economy to support Rwanda’s economic sustainability.

The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Education  and the Capacity Building and Employment Services Board (CESB) with the support of Rwanda Development Bank (BRD), Higher Education Council (HEC), Rwanda Polytechnics (RP), University of Rwanda and Workforce Development Authority (WDA).

“The programme will upgrade skills development within the youth, ensure provision of quality training programmes with market relevance, and expand opportunities for continuous upgrading of job-relevant skills for sustained employability.” said Dr Papias Malimba Musafiri; The Minister of Education.

Rwanda Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) recognizes the important role of skills development and building knowledge based economy and accordingly, calls for “200,000 [off-farm] jobs to be created each year.  The Project will contribute significantly to this target and benefit to a big number of the youth trough long-term trainings and short term trainings.

The programme will also help Rwanda achieve its target of creating more than 200,000 off-farm jobs annually as prescribed in the EDPRS2.