Rwanda is quietly emerging out of the lockdown as one of the leading in Africa and globally for successfully beating the #Covid-19 pandemic hands down.
The Rwandan 45-day total lockdown described as Africa’s most strict but with deterrent measures yielded what amounted to impressive results on the country’s economy.
One of the measures instituted early enough that served to flatten the curve of the pandemic and stopped the virus on its tracks from spreading in Rwanda was a total freeze from operations of its fledgling aviation sector.
The sector handles more than 800,000 passengers annually from its hub at Kigali International Airport. Policy makers singled it out as the primary importer of the virus into the country.
Consequently, Rwanda moved with speed and totally grounded operations of its nascent national carrier RwandAir in a move that saw its fleet of brand new aircraft the youngest in East Africa marooned to the tarmac of the Kigali International Airport.
What followed to the dismay of the local business community was shutting down of Rwanda’s borders another conduit of importing and spreading the virus from neighboring countries.
Kigali city; considered a promising metropolis with a rapidly emerging recreation sector went into a complete halt of its key economic activities.
For instance, the city’s entertainment hot spots were grounded to a screeching halt. Residents were ordered to get into hibernation mode and to operate from their homes. Public transported was effectively grounded.
In particular the popular motorcycle taxi operators considered a cost effective way of moving people in the economy was totally banned from operating apart of offering goods operations.
Taarifa
13/05/2020
