BUJUMBURA May 30th (ABP) – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi, Gervais Ndirakobuca, returned, on Sunday May 28, 2023, from a working mission to Egypt where he represented Head of State Evariste Ndayishimiye in a meeting organized by representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
In an interview with the press, Mr. Ndirakobuca indicated that the meeting was centered on the sensitization of the investors while putting forward the environmental protection. He added that this meeting brought together 4000 people who represented 81 countries including three presidents (that of Egypt, the one of Comoros and that of Zimbabwe).
The head of Burundi government also indicated that the meeting participants analyzed the challenges that handicap the countries of Africa. Those challenges relate to malnutrition, climate change and energy. After discussions and debates, they found that from 2020 to 2030, they will need an amount estimated between 1,300,000,0000 and 1,600,000,000 US dollars for the implementation of the decisions taken during this meeting, he said.
He also pointed out that investors are called upon to invest in the sector of agriculture since African countries cannot develop without agriculture.
Apart from that meeting, Mr. Ndirakobuca was welcomed by the President of Egypt, where they discussed the cooperation between Burundi and Egypt. Based on the theme of the meeting, he asked the Egyptian Head of State to help Burundi in the agricultural field, stressing that even if Burundi has the Nile and the rain is almost abundant (9 months of rain), the harvest is not satisfactory.
According to the head of government, Egypt is a country where the method of irrigation across the Nile River is used, which originated in Burundi, but the harvest is good in that country. It is in that context that he asked the Egyptians to help in that area by introducing the method of irrigation to be able to harvest more.
With regard to the Jiji-Murembwe hydroelectric dam, the Egyptian company which is assisting in the construction of that dam is requested to do all the best to complete the construction and correct the errors since at the level of the construction challenges were not lacking, he specified.