I am pleased to join you for the opening ceremony of the 2025 Aviation Africa Summit.

I wish to begin by thanking the organizers for once again bringing this event to Rwanda.

To all our guests, I welcome you to Kigali. We are honoured to host you.

Since its inception, the Aviation Africa Summit has been pivotal, in showing how much growth Africa’s aviation industry has experienced, in a very short time.

And with all the exhibitors and sponsors present, we also see how much more potential the aviation sector has to offer. This is really relative to the scarcity in that sector.

I want to single out Rwanda’s partnership with Zipline, which is represented here today.

About a decade ago, we began working closely together, to use drones for the delivery of urgent blood supplies, to health facilities across our country.

This technology does not only save time, it also saves lives.

Our collaboration has been very successful, and together, we are exploring how to extend it, to urban deliveries.

This is the foundation of key industries of the future, like e-commerce.

Today, for the first time in Africa, a self-flying air taxi will take to the skies.

We are very happy to be part of this demonstration, and look forward to seeing what will come next.

For Africa, the vision is very clear: To invest in a stronger and more dynamic aviation sector, as a necessary building block for economic growth.

With a growing middle class, and increasing tourism, the demand for air travel will only get stronger.

The numbers speak for themselves.

In the coming years, passenger traffic on our continent is expected to double.

At the continental level, efforts have been made to open our skies, through initiatives such as the Single African Air Transport Market.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is also a key enabler of prosperity.

Rwanda continues to play its part, by putting in place conducive regulations and policies, and we encourage others to do the same.

For example, we have removed visa restrictions for all African citizens.

Empowering women and girls, to pursue careers in the aviation industry, must also be our priority.

If implemented successfully, these frameworks can create more jobs, and a stronger foundation for innovation.

RwandAir, our national carrier, is also expanding its fleet.

Unfortunately, our continent continues to face high operational costs, and infrastructure gaps.

This makes the movement of people and cargo more expensive than it should be.

Travel should not only be for the rich.

We all need to work more closely with our continental institutions, notably the African Union and ASECNA.

It is important to strengthen these institutions, and ensure they are fit for purpose, to play a central role in achieving the vision of one sky and free movement on our continent.

The bottom line, is that we can achieve much more, if we work together.

We have all the resources and capabilities we need.

Once again, I wish to welcome you all to Kigali, and thank you for finding the time to be here for this very important gathering.

I hope this summit will renew our momentum, towards building the Africa that we all want, and deserve to have.

Enjoy your stay with us, and I wish you all a very productive meeting.

Thank you once again.