The President of the Republic has appointed Joseph Nsengimana as the new Minister of Education. Gaspard Twagirayezu, who previously held this position, has been named the Director General of the National Space Agency.
This change was announced by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
Nelly Mukazayire, who was the Deputy Director of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), has been appointed as the Secretary General at the Ministry of Sports.
Joseph Nsengimana, the new Minister of Education, was previously the Director of the Mastercard Foundation, where he worked on promoting education through technology.
Before joining Mastercard, Nsengimana worked at Intel Corporation, an American technology company.
Nelly Mukazayire is an expert in economics and has been the Deputy Director of RDB since March 2023. Before that, she was the Director of the Rwanda Convention Bureau, which promotes tourism.
Mukazayire also served as Deputy Director General in the President’s Office and worked as a policy researcher in the economic division at the Prime Minister’s Office. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a PhD in Economic Policy Management.
Gaspard Twagirayezu, who has been appointed as Director General of the National Space Agency, was the Minister of Education in August 2023, succeeding Dr. Uwamariya Valentine, who became Minister of Gender and Family Promotion.
Twagirayezu has been promoted from the position of State Secretary at MINEDUC, which he held since February 2020. He also worked in the President’s Office from October 2019 to February 2020 as a strategy and policy analyst.
From October 2014 to September 2019, he was a science and technology analyst at the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST).
Before this, Twagirayezu was a science coordinator at Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, a role he held from October 2013. He attended secondary school at Petit Seminaire St. Pie X Nyundo from 2001 to 2007, where he studied Latin, Biology, and Chemistry.
He then studied at Oklahoma Christian University in the USA from 2008 to 2012, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Electronics Engineering. He continued at the same university for his Master’s degree in the same field.
