Rwandans should take advantage of financial opportunities offered by the African Solidarity Fund (ASF) by using its guarantee to access investment loans, the fund’s director-general has said.

Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo made the call, yesterday, while opening the Fund’s 7th Annual General Meeting in Kigali, which was used to assess its performance and how stakeholders in the economies of the Fund’s fourteen member countries in Africa can benefit.

The 40-year-old body is now worth about Rwf29 billion, which is a disbursed contribution from governments in its thirteen member countries from mostly Central and Western Africa, including Rwanda and Burundi.

The money is used by the Niger-based Fund to support economic growth of its member countries through guarantees and refinancing of projects to enable access to finance for the private sector, lowering the risks for the lenders and reducing the cost of borrowing.

Support to Rwandan projects

In Rwanda, the organisation has supported more than six projects in areas such as energy, education, and health, while it has also pledged to aid twelve other investment projects in the country in the next few years to boost agriculture, tourism, and energy among other priority areas.

"The Rwandan economy has to benefit from the Fund. I’m ready to facilitate meetings so that Rwandans can get better knowledge about our services,” Diallo said.

On Thursday, the ASF signed three multi-million agreements with Bank of Kigali (BK) through which the former will re-finance and guarantee investments by two Rwandan enterprises to continue efforts of investing in energy and tourism.

The agreement, signed at BK’s corporate headquarters in Kigali, will see Energie Nyaruguru Ltd, a local energy investment firm in Nyaruguru District with a 25-year concession to generate 500 kilowattas, receive more than Rwf540 million in project refinancing.

The local firm, that started operations in 2014 and currently sells power to Rwanda Energy Group, will also get Rwf465 million as an investment guarantee to Bank of Kigali.

Amaris Hotel in Kigali is another beneficiary of the ASF and will receive Rwf214-million refinancing of the investment.

"Bank of Kigali appreciates the support extended by the Fund and wishes to strengthen partnership with such African entities to support the development of Rwanda,” said Dr Diane Karusisi, Bank of Kigali’s chief executive.

Speaking at the Fund’s 7th Annual General Meeting in Kigali, yesterday, the chief executive of the Rwanda Development Bank (BRD), Alex Kanyankole, commended the relationship and cooperation between the Fund and Rwandan banks, explaining that it has helped address the challenge of access to loans for local investors.

"We have been able to work together as a team to work out a situation whereby the gaps in terms of collateral security were filled by the African Solidarity Fund,” he said.

The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Amb. Claver Gatete, said at the meeting yesterday that the Fund was "an important response” to the challenge of borrowing money for investments in Africa and urged participants at the summit to talk about how to expand its services and invest more in priority areas for member countries’ economic growth.

He said yesterday’s Annual General Meeting for ASF was "very important” for assessing the Fund’s performance but also rooted for looking to the future.

"We need to discuss how to move forward,” he said.

The African Solidarity Fund was formed in December 1976 with a mission to facilitate economic development among its founding member countries in Africa by boosting their financial services systems with the ability to lend money for productive investment projects.

Known widely by its French name, Fonds de Solidarité Africain (FSA), the Fund’s member countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad, Burundi, Mauritius, and Rwanda.

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