Kigali, Rwanda –The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana met the Ambassador Nicolas Randin, Head of the Sub-Saharan Africa Division at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The discussions focused on strengthening the cooperation between Rwanda and Switzerland by exploring the potential of using more of Rwanda’s Country systems as well as scaling up the cooperation in sectors of priorities.

The two, also signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at supporting the efforts of the Government of Rwanda in enhancing transformational governance objectives as set by the National Transformation Strategy (NST1. Under this agreement, the two parties particularly agreed to advance the strengthening of systems for citizen participation and accountability, the professionalization of the media sector and the support to the civil society policy advocacy for socioeconomic development.

SDC will also contribute to the enhancement of development coordination effectiveness through the Governance and Decentralization Sector Working Group of which it is the co-chair since last year. To achieve these objectives, SDC committed to make available a grant financial contribution of CHF 6,300,000 (approximately Frw 7.3 billion) for the period that will run up to 2025.

Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said; “Good Governance is at the center of Rwanda’s development ambitions. It is through entrenching good governance that we will achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development for all Rwandans. I thank the Swiss Agency for Development cooperation for the existing partnership and I look forward to exploring further areas of development cooperation that are priorities for our countries.”

“Governance is one of the priority sectors in Switzerland’s engagement in Rwanda. This agreement therefore represents an important milestone in materializing this engagement. We commend the leadership of the Government of Rwanda represented by MINECOFIN for putting in place and spearheading a transformational agenda for the benefit of the people of Rwanda. As Switzerland, we appreciate the cooperation with Rwanda and look forward to further strengthening our partnership through the implementation of this agreement” stated Ambassador Nicolas Randin, Head of the Sub-Saharan Africa Division at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Rwanda and Switzerland have a long-standing partnership in development cooperation dating back to the 1960s. Switzerland's activities focus mainly on governance, health and economic development.