Excellencies, dear friends, good afternoon.

Let me start by saying to the people present here that I had reduced almost to zero my attendance to the groundbreaking ceremonies and preferred to be going to attend ceremonies where we are opening something that is already done. But because of the importance and very much trust I have for those who invited me to this ceremony, I had to come. I broke my own rules just for that – because of the trust. And it’s as if what we are being told is going to be standing here in a few years has already happened.

I also want to thank the Ministry of Health and partners, particularly Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation – Dr Senait representing that here – and Shelter Group that is partnering with us in many important projects. I want to thank you very much for the good work being done.

It’s very true that with such efforts there is always some level of frustration. You keep wanting more and to do more. Things don’t happen as fast or as well as you would like that to be. In fact, for many years we’ve been training our young people. They’ve been to places. And training outside simply means outside there – there are better things to learn from because of the time people have had to build their systems, to learn. There is that level of exposure that we want our young men and women to benefit from and to come back and just build the same quality systems that they have learnt from, from different places they have been to.

Once that has been happening, you want people to keep coming back – trained and to be able to provide the services required. Therefore, you don’t expect after many years of trying to do that, to keep sending patients for example outside. So you send people to go and train outside, they come back, but you keep sending patients outside to be treated outside. So It doesn’t add up. We want therefore that to translate into growth of capacity here in our country in as many fields as we can and therefore our people and others from the region being able to get the services they need from us, from here, things we build here. Whether it is these facilities, infrastructure facilities, or therefore the capacities built in people to provide the services required.

I think it is in that context that we attach so much importance to these kinds of investments with us or in us – by friends, by partners – and we want to translate that to the level of that meaning I was talking about. That takes commitment as well as continued presence and practice of the things that are actually needed. And I think this is what our fellow Rwandans should grasp – should not only benefit from themselves, but also extend that benefit to the wider Rwandan community – and that also translating into even the whole region coming to Rwandan because of that quality service that can benefit them as it benefits Rwandans.

For many other problems that I know have been connected with this place for what has been going on, I intend to work closely with our different departments – Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, and those partners I mentioned earlier – to make sure we fix the problems that exist as we move towards these very nice projects that we are likely to have in the near future. We can’t just focus on that and forget to fix the existing old problems. You would just be undermining the good things you are doing going forward. So I’ll definitely have time for that.

In fact, also with the Ministry of Infrastructure there are things that need to be fixed here quickly in order to allow whatever is standing now with us to be fully and well operational. I think people who use this place or who work here know what I’m talking about. So we will do our best to deal with that. And maybe RSSB is here as well, represented? Rwanda Social Security Board will be part of that. We need to fix quickly the existing problem so that they don’t undermine the good and new efforts we are putting into this.

So finally I am just promising that I’ll be with you in this work we have to do – as of the past but more so as of going into the future – with these wonderful investments that we see are going to happen for us.

So thank you very much and thank you for inviting me to be with you in this opening.

Asante Sana.