Private Sector Federation (PSF) Chief Executive Officer Stephen Ruzibiza speaks at the closing ceremony. However, the gates will remain open up to Sunday
The official close of the twenty-day Kigali International Trade Fair, will mean that for the entire weekend and possibly much of next week, Kigali International Airport, will be waving off exhibitors who had come from all corners of the globe, until next year.
Although officially closed the Exposition or Expo itself continues until Sunday, by which time thousands a day will have passed through its gates.
The Private Sector Federation (PSF) is yet to tabulate the figures, but the estimate is in the region of 10,000 people a day. The PSF was however, able to decide the awards for the best performers of this the 28th Expo.
Among the winners were Ameki Color, Bank of Kigali and Bralirwa, for their longevity at the Expo, Bralirwa since 1998. I&M Bank was rewarded for best financial services at the Expo, with Irembo taking best Information and Communications Technology (ICT) exhibitor.
Mention that words, gender equality, innovation, and youth empowerment, in any game of trivial pursuits, and any well informed player will almost certainly give Rwanda, as the answer. Inevitably therefore, there were awards for best young entrepreneur, Inki Arts, best female exhibitor, Skin Paradise, and best innovative exhibitor, HQ Aqua Plastics Ltd. The trophy for overall winner went to an excitedly jubilant representative of Johana Products, with best manufacturer going to Roba industries.
Pass by the stand for the National Identity Agency (NIDA) stand, and it is immediately obvious why they were among the recipients of best exhibitor. Crowds of mostly young people line up, or more accurately, gather around the counters, three or four deep, waiting to be seen about everything and anything to do with the national Identity card, including of course, the new biometric version.
The staff, the majority of whom are not older much older than their clients, would be entitled to feel overwhelmed, instead however, they are perfectly relaxed, cheerful, seeming to relish the challenge, even as rather than decreasing the crowd gets bigger with each person they see.
In his remarks, PSF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stephen Ruzibiza, joked about whether the police had cast a spell over the multitudes attending the Expo.
“By now I would normally have had calls about this or that incident, someone being drunk and disorderly, things going missing…but not this time…” It was little surprise then that when it came to picking up the trophy for best public service, Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), stepped forward to receive that award for sprinkling the good behaviour magic over the thousands of visitors at the Expo.
The Expo itself might earn a prize for contribution to the national economy. An Expo can be “a mirror to the performance of an economy of a country” said Ruzibiza, adding that it can be a pointer to where to invest, it is of course a forum for business to business connections, the so called b2b, and at the Kigali Expo, business to government.
His words were echoed by the Director-General in charge of corporate affairs, at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, as she officially declared the Expo 2025 closed.
Ruzibiza’s confidence that the next Expo would be even better was supported by the revelation that there was a research team, looking at what had gone well and what had not.
