KIGALI, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has announced an additional 250 million U.S. dollars for the Economic Recovery Fund as part of the country's efforts to support the recovery of businesses severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Today, we have launched the second phase of economic recovery fund by boosting the recovery fund with 250 billion Rwandan francs (about 250 million U.S. dollars) in order to continue supporting businesses severely affected by the pandemic," said Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente on Wednesday in the Rwandan capital city Kigali.
He added that the economic recovery fund that was launched in 2020 has supported businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to be back on their feet.
According to him, the increase in the country's economic growth is a result of strategies put in place by the government to fight against COVID-19 including mass vaccination of the Rwandan population.
Ngirente also updated the nation about rising global commodity prices and Rwanda's readiness to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), scheduled in June 2022.
Ngirente said that Rwanda will work to ensure the supply of commodities and keep their prices stable on the market despite some commodity prices hitting new records.
He said that Rwanda is currently importing wheat from Brazil and Australia following the Ukraine crisis.
The challenge is that shipping costs have increased but the quantity of wheat has relatively remained the same on the Rwandan market, added Ngirente.
The Economic Recovery Fund prioritizes sectors including tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, transport and logistics, agro-processing, education, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) linked to domestic and global supply chains, said Ngirente.
According to him, the manufacturing industry was one of the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic, falling by 19 percent, while the construction sector dropped by 6 percent.
Rwanda's economy recorded a growth of 10.9 percent in 2021, according to the latest report by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
The NISR report for the year 2021 said that the sustained recovery during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic managed to reverse the 3.4 percent contraction recorded in 2020. ■