Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture will participate in the Grow Africa Investment Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia scheduled to take place on May 8th, 2012.
The Forum, which is organized by the World Economic Forum, the African Union Commission and the NEPAD Agency, is aimed at attracting and promoting private investment in the agriculture sector in Africa.
The objective of the Rwandan mission is to meet with potential investors and showcase investment opportunities in the Agribusiness sector through various group presentations and bilateral discussions.
The event is expected to engage up to 200 African and global leaders from the private sector and government, international organisations, development agencies, civil society, farmers’ organizations and academia to discuss opportunities to engage in the priorities presented by Grow Africa countries.
Clare Akamanzi, the Chief Operations Officer of the Rwanda Development Board explained that RDB continues to put forth its efforts into attracting more local and foreign investments in the country and actual results have continued to manifest themselves through tangible investments.
She said, “The Grow Africa investment Forum is yet another platform for Rwanda to engage and network with investors specifically in the Agribusiness sector and thus advance high value added products in order to further grow the Rwandan economy.”
RDB expects that as a result of creating awareness about the attractiveness of Rwanda’s agribusiness sector, this will lead to increased inflow of foreign investments, crafting joint ventures between local and foreign investors, increased exports and employment opportunities due to investments.
The Grow Africa Forum is a multi-country platform that has included seven countries as part of its ‘first wave’. These countries include Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso.
The first meeting of the Grow Africa Forum was held in Dar Es Salaam in November 2011, and included representatives from this first wave of countries, alongside private investors and major development partners.
The focus of this meeting was to kick-start a country-led process to identify priorities and opportunities for private investment and agree on key next steps.
Rwanda presented a range of investment proposals, packaged under a Food Basket framework, which had been agreed on at a National Stakeholder Roundtable that was organized by Ministry of Agriculture last October.
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