The Egyptian FM, who arrived in Kigali on Tuesday evening, is set to take part in a celebration to mark laying the foundation stone of the Magdi Yacoub Heart Centre in Kigali, Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez said.

The Egyptian foreign ministry will fund the processes of purchasing and equipping the centre's first phase through the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (EAPD), Hafez said.

Established in July 2014 by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as the first South-South cooperation institution in Egypt, the EAPD is meant to put the country’s advantages and technical expertise into play for the benefit of the South, especially Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

World-renowned Egyptian heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub will take part in the ceremony together with senior Rwandan officials, including Rwanda's First Lady Jeannette Kagame, Hafez added.

Yacoub, 85, one of Egypt’s most inspirational medical figures, is one of the world’s most respected cardiology surgeons.

He holds the Guinness World Record for having performed the largest number of surgeries in one year, when he performed 100 operations in 1980.

Yacoub is the first Egyptian to receive the UK Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth in 2014.

He has developed a procedure for switching heart vessels for babies born with congenital heart defects, and has written over 1,000 medical articles and co-authored several books.

After 11 years of engagement with Egyptian children through Abul-Riche Children’s Hospital in Cairo, he established the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation in 2008.

In 2009, the foundation established the Aswan Heart Centre; a non-profit NGO that provides free world-class medical services to the less privileged in Egypt and the region who suffer from cardiovascular diseases. The NGO conducts various training and research programmes.