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HUYE Public Private Dialogue have discussed access to finance

> 15 July 2014

Friday June 26th, 2014, a Public Private Dialogue took place at Hotel Credo in Huye District. The dialogue was aiming at finding a solution to the problem of access to finance faced by a good number of members of the business community. The Private Sector delegation was led by Mr Karorero Christophe the Private Sector Federation President while the District side was represented by Huye District Executive Secretary Mr Nshimiyimana Vedaste.
Since the dialogue was touching the key issue of access to finance, banks were well represented. 7 banks and microfinance institutions attended. Those are: Banque populaire du Rwanda, Banque de Kigali, ECOBANK, COGEBANQUE, Equity Bank, AGASEKE and RIM). The key points of discussion were:
 Banks lack clarity in loan provision. Many cases were exposed where business people submitted their files and completed all procedures. Some reported to have even been notified officially allowance of the loan but have never received money.
 It was also observed that banks were very reluctant to fund “Hangumurimo program" where the Business Development Fund (BDF) provides 75% of collateral. They noticed that during the meeting with the Minister of Trade and Industry , banks accepted to consider the particularity of Hangumurimo projects and ease their conditions as agreed upon with the government, but when back in their offices, they tell business people that they will not change anything on their funding conditions.
In general, six resolutions were taken and the most important ones are to have a quarterly meeting between the Private Sector Federation (PSF) and banks to discuss those issues on regular basis. The other one is to organize another dialogue on “Hangumurimo funding” within one month and this time MINICOM has to be invited.

Though the issue of access to finance is so complex and cannot be solved overnight, both sides were very pleased by the dialogue and pledged to always use this mechanism because it is unique and allow everyone to express easily his concern and come up with resolutions agreed upon by all.

By Baptiste BIZIMUNGU,GIZ Consultant.