Visionary leadership and how it can be harnessed to boost team performance and drive long-term business development will be among the key topics at a two-day Kigali Leadership Summit set to take place this weekend. 

More than 400 youth leaders and managers are expected to attend.

Organisers say the summit aims to equip participants with the capacity to exploit their full potential and experience a life based on a vision of a better future rather than limitation of what they currently encounter.

The summit is being organised by the International Third World Leaders Association (ITWLA).

It will attract keynote speakers from Canada, Kenya, South Africa, and the US and Rwanda, including retired Anglican bishop John Rucyahana and other international speakers mentored by Dr Myles Munroe, the founder of ITWLA, who died in a plane crash last year.

One of Dr Munroe’s protégés, Sugira Hategekimana, a Rwandan living in Canada, told reporters at a news briefing, yesterday, that they intend to put emphasis on a new type of leadership which focuses on the future.

"What we are bringing is a new type of leadership. International Third World Leaders Association (ITWLA) has done so much but it is not about the past. Visionary leadership focuses on the future,” Hategekimana said.

"Visionary leadership is not about what you did yesterday because what you did yesterday is the hindrance to what you could be doing tomorrow.”

"I think Rwanda and Rwandans should be an example of the emerging leadership that nobody is expecting and, that is why I am excited for this summit – the first of its kind – to be held in our nation because many people never expected us to come this far.”

Discussions will also focus on the experience of Rwanda’s leadership during the post-Genocide era, and the success story of Rwanda.

Inspiring youths

Hategekimana and his group aim to inspire young Africans to become better leaders and managers. Participants will include senior executives, business leaders, and experts from local and international non-governmental organisations.

As a Rwandan returning home, he said, he hopes that the summit will add value.

Hategekimana said: "What I hope and I believe this summit will add onto Rwanda is, as a nation, we have a very good and visionary leadership, but what we are bringing is to break up the belief that leadership is about politics only. It is about personal leadership first.”

"We are going to give you keys for you not to only look but also see, on a personal level and on a corporate level. We have done so much but we still need to do more because to be somewhere is one thing but to stay up there it will take more than just a national vision. We need each and everyone in our country to do greater things.”

Charlie Masala (South Africa), senior vice president of the ITWLA, said to see good change, there is definitely a need to change the quality in a leader.

"We are here to ensure, and play our part in a little way…we will be talking about visionary leadership because the eyes that look are common but the eye that sees is rare,” he said.

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