The Rwandan government will soon open its first medical cannabis production site.
A first step after the legalization of medical cannabis in the country.
Rwanda will launch its first medical cannabis production site with a size of 134 hectares according to information relayed by the Rwandan newspaper The New Times. This project is a first step following the official legalization of cannabis in the country a few months ago.
For the moment, the locality of the site remains unknown, and no cultivation license has been granted. The Rwandan government wants to profit from the cannabis industry. Estimates call for $10 million per hectare.
“The government will select companies with experience in the production of cannabis for medical use. At the moment, five companies are in advanced discussions,” announced an RDB executive quoted by the New Times.
Rwanda wants to export medical cannabis to Europe and the United States.
The Rwandan government wants to export all of its cannabis production to the United States, Canada, and Europe, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom.
Rwanda should, therefore, soon become an essential competitor for these neighbors such as Lesotho, Botswana, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Companies with a license will be required to invest in adequate security systems. The decree legalizing medical cannabis provides in particular for the establishment of a system with a “double-layer fence,” a security guard “24 hours a day and seven days a week”, “video surveillance,” a “intrusion detection system” as well as a control room as reported by Newsweed magazine.
“If you get licensed to grow these therapeutic crops in Rwanda, you will be required to have in place a very strong security program that has to be approved by our security organs, and that security program is going to be highly implemented,” said Claire Akamanzi, the Chief Executive Officer of RDB.
“There will be no way that cannabis can leak out of the farm to go to the domestic market or to the wrong users. The crops will be in a very designated place, there will be very strong measures, whether it is CCTV cameras, watchtowers, street lights, and human security. So it is going to be extremely secure,” she added.
The consumption of cannabis products for recreational purposes will remain illegal in Rwanda with severe penalties for the illegal production, distribution, and consumption of cannabis.
