KIGALI – Rwanda’s Trade Ministry has fixed food prices in order to prevent markets from hiking them during the coronavirus outbreak.
Ms Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the Rwanda Trade minister, said there is no reason why many companies and traders should take advantage of the emergency situation over coronavirus to increase food prices.
Some of the food prices whose prices have been fixed increase maize, beans, bananas, sugar, rice, cooking oil. For instance, for a 25kg bag of rice, the Trade Ministry has fixed at Rw18,000 and a kilogramme at between Rw750 and 800. For Pakistan rice, a 25kg bag has been fixed at Rw20,500 or 900 a kilo.
A kilo of sugar has been fixed at between Rw850 and Rw1,000. Cooking oil has been fixed at between Rw1500-2000 per litre.
The measures come after the Rwanda government on Saturday suspended learning in schools until further notice after reporting a coronavirus case. Two more people tested positive on Sunday. The number of the novel coronavirus cases in Rwanda rose to seven on Monday following two more people who tested positive on Monday.
The recent cases include that of a Rwandan woman whose husband tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday with recent travel history in Fiji, United States and Qatar. The other is a 61-year old German native who arrived in Rwanda on March 13, from Germany via Istanbul.
The government also requires all taxi-moto operators to remove the helmet screens for passengers to limit the possibility of spreading the virus.
The East African Community has suspended with immediate effect all meetings (statutory and otherwise) due to the novel coronavirus #Covid_19 outbreak.
Other African countries with coronavirus cases include Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Somalia.