Rwanda and India EXIM Bank have signed an $ 81m financing agreement to support Technical Vocational Education and training (TVET) program.
This fund will see the construction of modern training centers and four business incubation centers.
Finance and Economic Planning Minister Claver Gatete said that technical skills play an important role in downsizing unemployment and poverty rates, increasing the output as well as enhancing social development in Rwanda.
He argues that despite the national industry growth, there are still gaps in the technical skills. “Rwanda’s industrial base is growing but it does not match skills available in the country,” he said, adding that it is important to address the skills gap in order to ensure a continuous growth and competitive economy.
The financing agreement signed on the sidelines of the ongoing Africa Development Bank Annual Meetings in India will scale up and support ongoing government efforts to improve quality of technical education and enhancing existing capabilities of institutions to become dynamic, demand-driven, quality conscious, efficient, forward looking and responsive to rapid economic and technological developments.
Recent audit conducted indicated that there are significant technical and vocational skills deficiencies to meet the current labor market demand. Filling these skills gaps in the economy will be crucial to the realization of vision 2020 and EDPRS 2. In order to address it, the Government of Rwanda set a national target of creating 200 thousands off-farm new jobs every year.
