Banro Foundation and Lugushwa community inaugurate the new Kigumo Health Clinic

TORONTO, March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Banro Corporation ("Banro" or the "Company") (NYSE AMEX - "BAA"; TSX - "BAA") announces that the Banro Foundation, a registered charity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the "DRC"), has officially handed over to the community of Lugushwa in South Kivu province of the DRC the new Kigumo Health Clinic.

The inauguration of the Kigumo Health Clinic took place on Friday, February 26, 2010 in an Official Ceremony presided over by South Kivu Deputy Governor Jean Claude Kibala and Banro President and C.E.O Mike Prinsloo. Among the local leaders in attendance were Honorable Longangi Byemba Tsonga Yaya, Member of the South Kivu Parliament, Chief Christian Longangi Byemba Kampangalasa, Dr. Edouard Muzito Basubi, territorial physician, Wenga Kitoga, territorial administrator, and Patient Kabanga, representing the South Kivu Ministry of Mines. Representatives of the South Kivu Ministry of Health also participated.

The health clinic was financed and built by the Banro Foundation using local contractors and labour. The Banro Foundation also underwrote the costs of new medicines, which were provided by a state-approved pharmaceutical products supplier, and donated medical equipment, beds and mosquito netting to help launch the new facility.

With the handover of the Kigumo Health Centre, the Banro Foundation completes an ambitious cycle of major social infrastructure projects begun in 2008 that includes two new high schools, a potable water delivery system serving 18,000 people in four villages, the construction or re-construction of over 100 kilometres of roads and bridges and the distribution of medical equipment from Canada to seven regional hospitals and clinics. The Banro Foundation is commencing a new cycle of projects as recommended by community leaders at Banro's three active exploration and development sites. .

The Banro Foundation is a registered charity based in Bukavu, DRC and funded by the Company with a mandate to improve the lives of thousands of people living in South Kivu and Maniema provinces through strategic investments in education, health and infrastructure development and to provide humanitarian assistance as needed. Among the principles guiding the work of the Banro Foundation is a focus on needs identified by local community leaders, with priority given to projects that benefit communities as a whole. Where possible, the Foundation employs local labour in its initiatives.

Photographs of the Ceremony will be available soon on the Banro website at www.banro.com.

More information about the Banro Foundation, including a comprehensive list of projects to date, as well as the Company's other Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, can be viewed at www.banro.com/s/CorporateResponsibility.asp or in French at www.banro.com/s/FR-Corporate-Responsibility.asp.

Banro is a Canadian-based gold exploration company focused on the development of four major, wholly-owned gold projects, each with mining licenses, along the 210 kilometre-long Twangiza-Namoya gold belt in the South Kivu and Maniema provinces of the DRC. Led by a proven management team with extensive gold and African experience, the Company is commencing construction of "phase one" of its flagship Twangiza project and to that end has acquired a gold plant, which once upgraded and refurbished, will be capable of treating 1.3 million tonnes of ore per year. Banro's strategy is to unlock shareholder value by increasing and developing its significant gold assets in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

SOURCE Banro Corporation