Mr. Zephanie Niyonkuru serves as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Sports. 

Previously, he held the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), a Government of Rwanda entity tasked to transform Rwanda into a global hub for business and innovation by fostering an attractive environment for investments, enabling exports, and creating jobs.

Before assuming the role of Deputy CEO at RDB, Mr. Niyonkuru was the Country Representative at the USAID East Africa Trade & Investment Hub where he oversaw the activities in Rwanda, including but not limited to supporting companies raise financing, restructure operations, strengthen distribution channels, and find buyers in the US, Costa Rica and regional markets. Earlier on, Zephanie spent 7 years in strategy consulting. While at ESPartners and at OTF Group, he carried out consultancies related to strategy, entrepreneurship, development banking, tourism and export development for public and private sector entities across East and West Africa.

Zephanie also worked with the World Bank/IFC as a Short Term Consultant (STC) where he carried out research related to the status of inspection and competition across food and drug industries in Rwanda.

Mr. Niyonkuru serves as the Chairperson of the board of directors at the Rwanda Airports Company (RAC) and Chairperson of the Interim board of directors at the Rwanda Cooperation Initiative Ltd (RCI).

A retired international FIFA accredited football referee, Mr. Niyonkuru holds a Master’s degree in Finance (Major: Economic Policy) from the University of London, School of Oriental of African Studies (SOAS), and he underwent several training programs including private sector development and development of economic development zones at the Swedish Institute of Public Administration and Jiangxi College of Foreign studies respectively. He is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society East Africa.