In our editorial last week we mentioned unfair trade practices impacting local manufacturers and businesses. We mentioned among other things the rampant under-invoicing of goods from neighboring countries which end up being priced well below locally manufactured products. We also mentioned dumping and smuggling as other big problems.

Rwanda Revenue Authority assures people that it is fighting these problems which are on the verge of totally driving local manufacturing out of business.

Like we said before, some of us resort to the lazy reasoning that the problem with Rwandan industry is that East African counterparts have economies of scale and are more efficient in their production methods. Sure? Is this the best we can do for our poor manufacturers? Blithely leave them at the mercy of predatory traders who too often in collusion with unscrupulous border officials flood the market with under-declared goods?

Come on ladies and gentlemen, what does this say about our aspirations to become self-reliant?

Yes, we acknowledge Rwandan industry is still miles behind our neighbors Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but the way forward is not to totally abandon them. The way forward is to be ever more vigilant about unfairly imported goods.

Unfortunately the people concerned, namely the Private Sector Federation among others, are more pre-occupied with their office politics and appearing on the surface to be working very hard yet on the ground they have a very small footprint.

People need to get out of their offices more; they need to be out in the real world more, namely the Quartier Mateus and other trading centers in the country. They need to work a little bit harder scrutinizing importers invoices and their pricing policies and so on. They will be surprised by what they discover.

Of course the populist approach is to say that since people are getting things cheaper then that surely is a good thing. But this is simplistic. How much tax revenue is the country losing for instance as a result of under-invoiced goods? And how many jobs are Rwandans losing as a result of folding manufacturers?

The truly amazing thing is the little attention in our societies we pay for such things as joblessness. You will see extremely poor people all around you, but if you can tool around in your Toyota Prado you do not seem to mind.

But know this: you ignore joblessness at your peril.

Those teeming masses of unemployed people in slums may appear peaceful today but may be a powder keg waiting to explode tomorrow. The keg can only be defused with jobs. Jobs give people a slightly enhanced sense they are stakeholders in society and as such are less susceptible to violence and to messages of violence.

There already are too many Rwandans without jobs. So we need to work hard to ensure that as many as possible keep theirs. One of the main ways to do that is take a closer look at the ailments of local businesses, local manufacturers and what can be done to alleviate them.

Private Sector Federation bosses who spend more time in the corridors of power than out in the real world have to know this: they are badly failing to live up to the challenges of their job.

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