Rwanda backs clean transport and youth-led circular solutions

Rwanda’s green shift is starting to look, sound and even smell different on the ground in Kigali. In footage filmed on Thursday, commuters move through the city on electric buses and battery-powered motorbikes, with charging stations becoming part of the daily streetscape. The push to electrify public transport is framed as a practical response to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and it sits inside Rwanda’s Nationally Determined Contributions. Rwanda’s initial NDC set a 38% emissions reduction target by 2030, while a revised plan sets a 53% reduction target by 2035.

On the street, the benefits are tangible. Electric vehicles are described as cost-efficient and practical, offering faster and quieter journeys while cutting emissions. The video report presents this as more than a pilot moment. It shows a city where clean mobility is being folded into everyday routines, supported by policy, technology and community uptake. “This approach is not intended solely to protect Rwanda, but also to contribute to global efforts against climate change,” said Gashumba Damascene, Executive Director of the Organisation for Environment and Rural Development (REDO).

Away from the roads, the same climate logic is showing up in youth-led businesses that treat waste like inventory rather than a nuisance. Through the United Nations Environment Programme, the Restoration Factory awarded a total of $21,000 in grants to 33 innovators after more than six months of venture development. Seventeen finalists presented pitches to a qualified jury across land use, restoration, carbon credits and waste management, with many of the entrepreneurs described as young women.

Amon Muberuka, founder of Icyizere Consultant Ltd and proprietor of Fumbila Organic Farm Technologies, is turning food waste into protein-rich livestock feed and organic fertilisers. He is currently collecting 20 tons of milk waste in the Eastern Province and working with 30 cooperatives. He said his product sells at 900 Rwandan francs per kilogram, which he described as 20% less than the 1,100 francs price he cited for imported feed, and that each cooperative receives 100 kilograms per month.

Josiane Mujawayezu, a university graduate and researcher, mixes waste paper, human hair and eggshells with other animal and food waste to produce organic fertiliser, citing a recommended carbon-nitrogen ratio of less than 25. She is working with farmers in Nyanza and Musanze districts and supplies 20 tonnes per month, with plans to increase waste collection in hotels and salons to reach 45 tonnes per month.

For buyers, investors and development partners, the throughline is that Rwanda’s green transition is being built from both ends: cleaner mobility in Kigali and practical circular inputs emerging from the innovation pipeline. The next chapter will be about scaling what already works and turning these solutions into repeatable models across the country.

Sources: Broadcast Media Africa & KT Press