A Rwandan mother who is doing her first antenatal checks and tests today will get her full salary all along her maternity leave, 12 weeks.
Rwanda’s parliament has passed maternity fund law where any employee; a woman or a man, a diplomat or a civil servant or any private company employee will be contributing 0.3 per cent from their gross salary.
Any employer will contribute 0.3 per cent from gross salary of every employee, for this to work.
Then the mother will keep visiting her bank account as usual, which makes Rwanda one of the countries in the world where a woman would wish to be working, a day before her delivery.
“It’s a relief. I had been wondering how I will afford to go for maternity leave while earning almost nothing,” Judith Kabatesi, an employee from a nonprofit making organization told KT Press.
The lady who is to deliver for the first time in July always criticized the current law whereby a mother gets 12 weeks half of which she is fully paid.
This law that is being amended had made the second half of the maternity leave optional because it does not favor the mother. She has to choose between getting just 20% of her salary or to return to work.
“The scenario is tormenting; you wouldn’t like to leave your baby at one month and a half. Yet, 20% of my salary would not help when I am the only working person in my family,” says Kabatesi.
The lady who has been interpreting the law as “a punishment to the working mothers” is happy the government gave mothers what they wanted and will greatly increase their production back to work.
Considering Rwf 2,304,540, the earning of senior officials with Director General title, CEOs or Commissioner General-case of Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS), a mother heading an institution in Rwanda is currently losing Rwf 2,765,448 from her salary once in maternity leave.
This could help her pay Masters Program in local universities after the maternity leave. It could pay tuition fees for her two children in best schools of the country, from baby class to Primary six.
Her head of central secretariat earning Rwf 280,736 would be obliged to surrender Rwf 336, 883.2 which is enough for an entire program among the best public boarding colleges of the country.
This money can start a small piggery project in rural Rwanda.
However, Rwandan MPs suggest even Rwanda still has much more to achieve. First of all, a mother will only enjoy a maternity leave if he has contributed at least for one month.
“This still looks a punishment against working mothers,” said Ignacienne Nyirarukundo who argued, “The law should make benefits automatic for any mother who gets employment.”
For John Ruku-Rwabyoma, “the law should also consider giving incentives to any employee whom a lady can leave a child born out of marriage contract.”
Meanwhile, the United States, along with Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Liberia and Lesotho are some of the countries in the world that provide no type of financial support for mothers.
Rwanda has many examples to aim at, especially in terms of prolonging maternity paid leave.
Luxembourg, like Netherlands and Spain give a 16 weeks paid maternity leave, while Croatia gives one year paid.
The best country ever could be Bulgaria with 410 days, all paid for.
Back in Africa, South Africa gives a mother right to four consecutive months of maternity leave but the employer is not legally obliged to pay the leave. Nigeria gives 16 weeks fully paid.