Rwandan students sensitized on EAC integration benefits

Students from universities and higher learning institutes in Rwanda have been tipped on the benefits East African Community (EAC) integration.

According to a capacity-building expert Wanyama Masinde, a number of people from the five EAC partner states (Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya) have not yet understood the benefits of EAC integration and still cling to their respective countries.

In a public lecture at the Kigali Institute of Management (KIM), Wanyama told students that since independence, African countries have always considered a united continent a key to development.

He said that the major challenge towards benefiting from integration is the fact that African leaders rushed to having integration blocks ahead of communities’ understanding of the whole concept.

“In the past countries merged their borders prior to identifying the opportunities that would come along with the merging of frontiers, simply because of little knowledge and a few means based on mindset,” expressed Wanyama,

He called on students to aid mindset change for the region, with a message that all people in the region would benefit from the EAC integration without discrimination.

Augustine Karangwa, a students’ representative at Kigali Institute of Management {KIM}, said the training helped students with mindset change.

Karangwa said that following the increasing number of university graduates in Rwanda, EAC is an ideal job market.

Rwandan students sensitized on EAC integration benefits