EABW reporter

KIGALI, RWANDA - The Rwanda Cabinet has approved the privatisation of Bugarama and Kabuye Rice Schemes, for US$ 158,000, information from the Public Assets Transfer Unit has showed.







The cabinet decision paves way for the investors to rehabilitate the mills and increase production of rice in the country.

The move also allows the investors to come up with innovations that will position Rwanda as a regional rice basket. The country partly depends on imported rice from Asia, Tanzania and Uganda to meet the domestic demand.



The two rice schemes are now owned by the Rwandan government and ICM Agribusiness.



Under the new agreement, the Rwanda government has retained a 40% stake in Kabuye and another 40% in Bugarama.

The strategic investor, ICM Agribusiness controls 60% in both Bugarama and Kabuye. To turn around the schemes to full production capacity, the investors need more than $800,000.



Kabuye Rice Mill, may require at least $403,000 (Rwf230m) excluding working capital to be turned around to start full capacity production.



The Bugarama Rice Scheme is located North-West of Rwanda neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

It lies on a sprawling 1903 hectares of marshland but was rundown by fleeing perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. The Kabuye Rice Mill is in Kigali.



Information from Rwanda Revenue Authority indicates domestic rice consumption, is still high and partly responsible for the country's high import bill.



The 2007 importation records from National Bank of Rwanda show Rwanda imported 30% of the rice consumed that year, in 2008, the volume reached 246,372 tonnes while last year it slightly reduced to 54,795 tonnes.

Rwanda plans to reduce the volume of imported rice.



With a 'suitable climate" for rice production, experts in the agriculture sector are optimistic "the country will soon close the rice production shortage."



They reason: "the country is capable of growing two crops a year in a single field without necessarily irrigating the fields."

According to ICM Agribusiness' plan, Bugarama will be upgraded to start milling 8,000 tonnes each season. To encourage more Rwandans to grow rice, the company will be paying the growers within 4 days of supplying the rice.



ICM also plans to install new modern milling machinery with the capacity to process over 120 tonnes of paddy rice daily or 800 tonnes per week.



At the Kabuye plant, ICM Agribusiness says the mill will be rehabilitated to process 4-5,000 tonnes of paddy rice each season.

The company also plans to start making animal feed within Kigali City, a move that will support backyard farming in the city.