President Paul Kagame on Tuesday arrived in Cape Town, South Africa for the Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) EDGE, the organisation’s flagship event.

YPO is an international platform that brings together chief executives of various firms to engage, learn and grow to harness knowledge, influence and trust among themselves to create global impact.

The organisation has about 26000 members whose companies have a total turnover of over $9 trillion and in total employ about 22 million people.

The annual summit hosted in different continents convenes around 2,500 participants to address key issues in business, politics, science, technology, philanthropy and the humanities.

At the summit, President Kagame is expected to hold a fireside chat moderated by former YPO International Chairman, McKeel Hagerty as well as attend a dinner with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa.

This year’s meet is being held under the theme ‘Introducing the Life of RE’ - a life of constant upgrade and improvement with subthemes such as RE-ignite, RE-skill, RE-tool, RE-boot and RE-invent.

The two-day gathering will provide opportunities, support and inspiration for young leaders as they reinvent themselves and their industries.

President Kagame has received YPO delegations to Rwanda several times and has participated in different events organised by YPO globally.

The organisation awarded President Kagame with the Global Leadership Award in March 2003.

The last YPO visit to Kigali took place in November 2018 with 80-member of the organisation from across the globe including Belgium, USA, Monaco, Luxembourg, Lebanon, UK, Kenya and the Great Lakes YPO Chapter which brings together members from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo and South Sudan.

During the group’s recent interaction with Rwanda, members expressed interest in increasing their involvement in the Rwandan economy.

The potential investors sought insights on the Rwandan economy as well as other social aspects. The team held meetings with young business people in Rwanda, innovators, students and business community.

From the interactions with various business people in Rwanda including some of their own members, they said that they had had a better perception of the local investment climate.

The group is also seeking to recruit about 2000 young Rwandans and those from the region to be members of the organisation. 

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