[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″ background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” custom_margin=”||-100px”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”Oswald|||on|||||” text_text_align=”center” text_text_color=”#998002″ text_font_size=”61px” text_line_height=”1.1em” link_font=”||||||||” ul_font=”||||||||” custom_margin=”-20px||”]<\/p>\n
women drive border trade between rwanda and Congo<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2127.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″]<\/p>\n
By Anna Kam and Rachel Yeo<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”Roboto||||||||”]<\/p>\n Every day, tens of thousands of small-scale traders cross the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to do business.<\/p>\n Nearly all of the traders are women, said an immigration officer at the Poids Lourd border, the country\u2019s busiest port that sees around 50,000 to 60,000 people cross a day.<\/p>\n Mostly on foot, the women lug heavy bags of crops, fish and manufactured goods to sell on the streets and in markets. Others carry milk and clean water to sell to the million Congolese living in Goma, just over the border.<\/p>\n They live in border communities, according to the Rwandan government,<\/a> and with 70% of Rwandan women<\/a> engaged in farming, many are selling their own produce. <\/span><\/p>\n Under the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime, agriculture, fish, cosmetics and manufactured products are tax free between the two countries, a move designed to facilitate small-scale trading.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no import tax to Congo when the Rwandans go into trade, if the items are below US$2,000,\u201d said the immigration officer.<\/p>\n Rwanda and DRC residents need only an identity card to cross and are allowed to stay 24 hours at a time.<\/p>\n \u201cRwandan men think that US$2,000 is too little to trade,\u201d Ann Mugunga, who is from Uganda and studying in Hong Kong, said.\u00a0\u201cWhereas, the women would trade however big or small because they need to pay small fees such as payments of their children to go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2095.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2158.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2152.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Anna Kam and Rachel Yeo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-articles-1","category-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rwandareports.hkbujournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}