Nduhungirehe explains Rwanda's delay to remit EAC contributions

The government of Rwanda is evaluating the benefits from different regional blocs and organizations in bid to avoid giving financial contributions to bodies that are no longer effective. The state minister in the ministry of foreign affairs noted that all EAC countries, Rwanda included have not given their contributions, something that impedes the progress of the body.

The state minister in the Ministry of foreign affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe, says Rwanda has no unpaid contributions from the past years even though this year even 20% has not been contributed simply because other countries have unpaid contributions from the past years.

“There are countries in EAC that in this fiscal year 2019/2020 have to pay 8.3Million USD, some countries paid while others didn’t and also have unpaid contributions from the previous years. Uganda has paid about 6 Million, and  72% of the money needs to be paid. Rwanda paid 1.2 Million which is 14% and Tanzania paid 1 Million which is 13%, other countries have not paid and there are countries with unpaid contributions like South Sudan, with 19Million and Burundi with 3.9 Million. In a meeting in Arusha, we asked that countries with unpaid contributions to do so before 15^th November this year.” Nduhungirehe said. 

Economic analysts say that lack of commitment in paying contributions is a major factor that impedes joint development initiatives in the region.

“The problem of countries that don’t contribute to EAC is a worrying problem. If they came to build unity for the region and respective countries to develop, they should be able to do so. “ Isidore Gahamanyi, an analyst who follows EAC operations said in relation to the problem of countries in the regional organisation which are yet to contribute financially to their development.

He added, “I think there are countries that are unable to give contributions yet in the one regional bloc but want to join other bodies. They join many but can’t handle even one. It is not good. Rwanda being part of EAC, CPGL, African Union is okay, if they are able to abide by respective requirements of each organization. It helps in expanding the market in those regions…but if you have no capacity to even contribute to one regional bloc, it doesn’t make sense going to different bodies just for show”

Rwanda has started to evaluate the importance of different regional bodies in terms of benefits in bid to reduce contributions to bodies that benefit little as explained by Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe.

“Many times we give our contributions on time but we are also in many organizations that we are also evaluating the big and small organizations that require financial contributions, for us to see what organizations are important for us but for big organizations we give our contributions." Nduhungirehe noted. 

In guidelines of the EAC, there is a directive that stipulates that a country which has not given its contribution on time, and goes past 18 months risks being banned or stopped form the organization. But these directives have never been enacted even though some countries have violated them.