Hardware store owner Gahembe JM Vianney is one of thousands of IFC-supported entrepreneurs helping rebuild Rwanda as the country pushes ahead with a remarkable social and economic recovery following the genocide of the 1990s.
Thanks in part to a national leasing program backed by IFC, Vianney, who runs his busy store in the heart of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, has acquired a large delivery truck that will help him increase business.
“Since I’ve been using the truck, I’ve been able to make bigger deliveries and my sales have increased,” Vianney said. “I never would have been able to buy the truck, so leasing was the best option…I will definitely think about leasing more equipment in the future as my business grows.”
Supporting the leasing industry is just one way IFC is working with Rwanda’s government, businesses, banks, and other stakeholders to help grow the country’s private sector, which was devastated following the chaos of the 1994 genocide.
In recent years Rwanda has moved rapidly to rebuild infrastructure, restore social norms, and support the growth of its important tourism, agribusiness, and construction industries.
Key Partner
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is a key partner as Rwanda embraces private sector led growth to create jobs and bring opportunity and stability to a growing population.
IFC provided about $11 million in new investments in Rwanda in FY08, focusing on areas where developmental impact is greatest, including tourism, infrastructure, and private education. We are also considering investing in the power sector, financial markets and in microfinance.
Our advisory services programs, which support changes in policy and procedure that make doing business easier and more transparent, have helped Rwanda rapidly climb the rankings of the World Bank’s Doing Business Report.
In 2009, Rwanda made the list of the world’s 20 top reformers, coming only after Senegal, Burkina Faso, Botswana and Liberia as Africa’s top reformers. In the Doing Business Report, which ranks the ease of doing business in 181 countries, Rwanda climbed from 158 in 2007 to 139 in 2009.
Other areas where IFC is supporting private sector growth in Rwanda include:
- Education: IFC has invested $4.8 million in a risk-sharing facility that will allow the Banque Rwandaise de Développement to increase its investments in schools. IFC is also designing an advisory program to help strengthen the financial, management, and educational capacities of private schools in Rwanda.
- Financial Markets: IFC is helping Rwanda develop an appropriate legal and regulatory environment for issuing and trading bonds. IFC will also implement a training and certification program for securities market participants, and establish a framework for integrating Rwanda’s capital markets with other markets in East Africa.
- Tourism: IFC has invested $2.5 million to refurbish the Hotel des Mille Collines and a further $6 million in the Kigali and Lake Kivu Serena hotels, helping increase the number of high-quality hotel rooms in the country, and attracting more tourists.
- Women Entrepreneurs: IFC has helped train women entrepreneurs – an increasingly significant force in Rwanda’s private sector – on developing business plans and other important aspects of starting, running, or growing a business.
Although poverty remains widespread and most of the population still relies on agriculture, Rwanda has notched steady GDP growth of over 5 percent in recent years, has achieved primary school enrollment of 92 percent and has expanded clean water and power availability to millions.
Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, said: “In many ways Rwanda is a model of economic achievement, revitalizing its economy from the ground up in only a decade. IFC is increasing its investments and advisory programs in the country, which is rich in both natural and human resources.”
For more information contact:
Jason Hopps
Johannesburg, South Africa
Phone: +27 11 731 3120
E-mail: jhopps@ifc.org
