{"id":4848,"date":"2016-06-13T19:12:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T19:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/_test_&web\/?p=4848"},"modified":"2017-07-15T14:09:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T14:09:06","slug":"president-kagame-officiates-launch-of-coca-cola-ekocenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=4848","title":{"rendered":"President Kagame Officiates Launch of Coca-Cola EKOCENTER"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ruhunda, 13 June 2016\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Kagame\u00a0alongside Muhtar Kent, Chairman\u00a0of the Board and CEO of the Coca – Cola Company today officially inaugurated the\u00a0Coca \u2013 Cola\u00a0EKOCENTER in Ruhunda.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Coca-Cola Company launched a modular\u00a0social enterprise program called\u00a0the EKOCENTER aimed at\u00a0bringing\u00a0sustainable markets\u00a0closer to communities.\u00a0A fully equipped EKOCENTER is designed to serve as a retail center that provides a variety of utilities, services, or products\u00a0tailored to a community\u2019s local needs.<\/p>\n

“The facilities inaugurated here, demonstrate that the well-being and advancement of communities, is a responsibility for all of us.\u00a0By working together with other companies, as well as government, civil society, and most importantly citizens themselves, a win-win situation is created, for everyone involved.\u00a0The significance of such partnerships goes beyond a single company, or country.\u00a0They unfold in the wider context of the Sustainable Development Goals, to which the world committed itself last year.\u00a0Few companies are as truly global, as Coca-Cola. It is a product that almost everyone can afford, obtain, and enjoy.\u00a0We just have to work together, in new and innovative ways.\u00a0The private sector has a good partner in Rwandans. We want to make the best use of all the resources available to us. Above all, we want to see measurable results, in the lives of our people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Each EKOCENTER, typically managed by a female entrepreneur seeks\u00a0to become\u00a0a self – sustainable unit using\u00a0solar\u00a0power to work off the grid\u00a0\u2013 particularly\u00a0in areas that lack electricity or access to reliable power sources. There are currently 23 EKOCENTERS in Rwanda; 13 located in Eastern Province.<\/p>\n

The Ruhunda\u00a0EKOCENTER\u00a0provides\u00a0medical equipment\u00a0for the maternity ward at\u00a0the\u00a0local health facility\u00a0and\u00a0a solar power system that\u00a0powers\u00a0both the health center and surrounding street lights. It\u00a0also sells solar lights and has a telephone\u00a0station that charges up to 60 phones at a time and has\u00a0Wi-Fi connectivity.<\/p>\n

“Rwanda\u2019s national development goals are ambitious. But they are matched by the determination and confidence gained, from more than 22 years of hard work, to build the country our people want, and deserve.\u00a0Companies of any size can meaningfully support our efforts, through jobs and training, but also with community projects, such as Ekocenter.\u00a0As Rwandans we want to make the best use of all resources available to us. We value accountability and we want to see measurable results in the lives of people.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The EKOCENTER also provides water storage tanks through the Amazi Meza kiosk which has enabled Ruhunda residents have access to\u00a0treated and\u00a0purified water at a cost of\u00a0Rwf 50 per 20 litres.<\/p>\n

The Coca-Cola brand was first introduced in Rwanda in 1974 through Heineken Franchise with the production site located in Kigali.\u00a0It is estimated that the local Coca-Cola business\u00a0supports\u00a0approximately\u00a045,000 jobs directly and indirectly through supplier and distribution linkages.<\/p>\n

END<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruhunda, 13 June 2016\u00a0 President Kagame\u00a0alongside Muhtar Kent, Chairman\u00a0of the Board and CEO of the Coca – Cola Company today officially inaugurated the\u00a0Coca \u2013 Cola\u00a0EKOCENTER in Ruhunda. In 2014, the Coca-Cola Company launched a modular\u00a0social enterprise program called\u00a0the EKOCENTER aimed at\u00a0bringing\u00a0sustainable markets\u00a0closer to communities.\u00a0A fully equipped EKOCENTER is designed to serve as a retail center that provides a variety of utilities, services, or products\u00a0tailored to a community\u2019s local needs. “The facilities inaugurated here, demonstrate that the well-being and advancement of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7257,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4848\/revisions\/7257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}