Rwanda gets 40 ambulances from Belgium to scale medical services in country

The Government of Rwanda has Yesterday, on September 24, received a total of 40 ambulances from the Kingdom of Belgium to scale medical services in the country, according to a new report by The New Times.

Speaking at the handover, health minister Dr. Daniel Ngamije noted that the support contributes to the attainment of the country's national strategy in the context of epidemics response including Ebola and the current coronavirus pandemic, among others.

"This gesture will boost Rwanda's sustainable development agenda for the socio-economic welfare of its people. In addition, it brings a benefit to the work in progress to ensure Universal Health Coverage." Minister Ngamije said.

Each of the 40 ambulances donated is worth Rwf43 million, but the minister said that the country has so far received in a total of 43 ambulances from Belgians worth Rwf2 billion since the beginning of the year.

According to Ngamije, the Belgian government supports Rwanda's health sector in various projects that have been helping the health sector to improve access to primary health care.

Some of the programmes include the construction of Nyarugenge District Hospital Phase 1, Construction of Health Centres in Kigali among others.

Benoit Ryelandt, the Belgian ambassador to Rwanda echoed the same sentiments saying that the support was planned to expand and facilitate access to health care, "Particularly for the benefit of people living in rural areas, sometimes far away from distant hospitals and health care centres."