President Paul Kagame has appointed Dr. Ildephonse Musafiri as the new Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resource Development(Minagri), replacing Geraldine Mukeshimana who has been in the realm of the ministry since 2014.
Before the new appointment announced this March 2, 2023, Musafiri has been serving as Minister of State at the same ministry since August 2022. Earlier on, he served as head of the strategy and government policy committee in the Office of the President.
He is a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Rwanda, and a professor at the University of Rwanda, Department of Economics and Business, where he taught and was the head of the Department of Economics.
He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn in Germany.
Musafiri has become a Minister at a time when inflation in the country has been attributed to shortfalls in the agricultural sector especially low harvests in seasonal food crops and complaints of failure to manage fertilizer supply, milk processing and supply chains let alone shortage of cattle cross breeds to up the milk supply on an increasing market demand locally.
Also new change affected the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Board(RAB).
Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye as the Director General of RAB replacing Dr. Alexandre Rutikanga who was appointed last and approved by the Senate on this post.
Ndabamenye is a seasoned civil servant who worked as a senior official at RAB for years before heading to One Acre Fund a couple of months ago.
The Senate, like other oversight institutions (Chamber of Deputies and The Office of Auditor General), has not been particularly proud of its performance at RAB.
