Nairobi — The first privately owned radio station since the 1994 Rwandan genocide was launched on Thursday in the capital, Kigali, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported.

"This radio has come at the right time when the Rwandan community really needed another radio station," Laurent Nkusi, the information minister, was quoted as saying when he presided over the launch of Radio 10.

Nkusi said there was a need to build media in Rwanda that would be viewed as a pillar to development.

The proprietor of Radio 10, Eugene Nyagahene, called upon the Rwandan business community to support radio stations as part of boosting the economy through advertising.

State-run Radio Rwanda and Television have been for the past decade the only broadcasters in the country as the government had been cautious to liberalise its airwaves, RNA reported.

RNA reported that during the launch, different speakers expressed the need to avoid stations such as Radio Television de Milles Collines (RTLM), a pro-Hutu station that allegedly incited ethnic hatred, urging Hutus to kill Tutsi during the genocide.

Nyagahene said Radio 10 would not air any political views or programmes, citing lack of experienced journalists to handle such programmes.

Nkusi said five more radio stations had been granted broadcasting licenses since the government decision to liberalise the airwaves, RNA reported.