The private sector federation has banned herbalists from participating in any annual international trade expo a move which may jeopardise Rwanda’s focus on promoting local industry commonly known as ‘Made in Rwanda.’

The trade fair is expected to be one of the platforms to market this initiative and products and ideally provide a platform for the business community to share business and investment ideas.

Experts in medicine and health development suggest that there must be engagement and regulation since the lives of people are affected.

“It is not enough to stop them from trade expo. I think there must be a follow up in terms of engagement to find how best they can exhibit and to regulate the products and manner of exhibition,” said Dr Aflodis Kagaba, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Health Development Initiative-Rwanda (HDI).

The Rwanda international trade fair has been growing and this year’s event alone will see an increase in both foreign and local exhibitors.

Foreign exhibitors are charged $1.350 (Rwf1,057,940) per stand, while local exhibitors will pay Rwf450,000 and exhibitors in the general trading area will be charged Rwf202,500.

Herbalists have been part of this annual event and in the past 19 years many Rwandans had started appreciating the value and role of herbal medicine in Rwanda’s health sector development.

Most of the herbal exhibitors are small startup businesses with an investment capital of less than Rwf10 million and most of them have operations in the countryside and special outlets in Kigali.

Though most of these herbal companies have licences of operation and are certified by the Bureau of Standards, the quality of packaging and branding which in most cases can only be sold locally.

The idea to ban herbal medicine was initiated by the ministry of health through the private sector to halt their registration and participation.

The move to stop medicine advertisement is inline with the law that stipulates that advertising or propaganda of drugs and other pharmaceutical products shall only be authorised under the conditions as shall be determined by an order issued by the Minister responsible for Health.

Article 74 states that any form of advertising which is capable of misleading the public or giving them biased or incomplete information about preventive, diagnostic or curative properties of drugs and of pharmaceutical products shall be prohibited.

The decision to implement the law on pharmaceuticals will literally see many of the herbal companies miss out on the opportunity of marketing their products and to ultimately find new ways of advertising but the ministry of health says this action was in the pipeline.

Malick Kayumba, the Division Manager, Rwanda Health Communication Centre said that they passed a communiqué in 2012 alerting all partners to abide by the law and the recent ban was based on that warning.

“We had several meetings with PSF and representatives of traditional healers in 2014, 2015 and in June and July this year to ensure we have the same understanding on this” Mr Kayumba said.