“Nyaruguru Is No Longer Associated With Famine” – Ambassador Fatuma Ndangiza

Rwanda Governance Board (RGB)’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador Fatuma Ndangiza, on Wednesday said that Nyaruguru district, in Southern Rwanda, “is no longer associated with famine” as a result of good governance that Rwanda has been experiencing over nearly the last 19 years.

RGB’s Deputy CEO, Ambassador Ndangiza, made the remarks as she was touring different development programmes in the district as part of the country’s annual good governance month launched on January 22 and set to climax on March 15.

Among other development programmes, Ambassador Ndangiza visited a market and a savings and credit cooperative, both located in Rusenge sector, an 87-house water and electricity-supplied grouped habitat in Kibeho sector and a unit of health insurance coverage scheme at a health center in Mata sector.

“A lot has been achieved. But a lot still has to be done as well”, said Rwanda’s former Ambassador to Tanzania.

“But we can still be happy that Nyaruguru district is no longer associated with famine. It’s no longer the time when people, even the elites, could abandon the district for greener pastures in towns because now people have enough to eat, have enough to take to the market and many jobs are being created”, Ambassador Ndangiza hastened to add.

“This is a result of governance for production, governance for development. And the place [Nyaruguru district] is giving hope after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis”, she summed up.

That’s a philosophy that drives local leaders in Nyaruguru district, too.

According to Nyaruguru’s Mayor, François Habitegeko, “good governance normally means development”. This mentality, he says, has been shaping the district over the last few years with a special focus on developing rural areas of the district.

And while national statistics released in 2011 suggest that one million Rwandans had gone up the poverty line over the last five years, Mayor Habitegeko says the district has also enjoyed a 24 percent decrease in poverty over the last phase one of the country’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) and the district plans to double efforts in the upcoming, second EDPRS.