Rwanda Finance Limited (RFL) has called on members of the Rwandan Diaspora with professional skills in the financial sector to consider bringing them home.
The demand for personnel with skills in financial services is set to surge as the country positions itself as a regional financial services hub, RFL says.
The firm, which is owned by the government, is charged with promoting the local financial sector, develop and position the country as a regional financial hub capable of attracting investments.
The corporation went into operational last year and is currently working with key government and private sector stakeholders to put in place the needed policies, regulations and tax incentives.
It also aims to upskill the local financial sector and to build a pipeline of highly qualified financial professionals.
Speaking during a conference where representatives of several organisations in the country met virtually with Rwandan community abroad on Thursday, February 25, Hortense Mudenge, the Chief Operating Officer at RFL hinted on the gaps in the financial sector.
One of the gaps, she said, the sector has a skills shortage, urging diaspora Rwandans to seize the opportunities in their homeland.
"Currently, we have about 38,000 professionals working in the financial sector, according to a market survey released last year, and about 60 per cent of these hold a university degree or a higher level professional certificate,” she disclosed.
When you go into specialised skill sets like accounting or financial management which require more international professional qualifications, she explained, you find that they are only about 2 per cent
"This really pales when you compare it with other financial centres that we want to emulate, such as Mauritius where you find enrolment levels of over 47 per cent qualified professionals,” she added.
Mudenge told her audience that as investors will be coming into Rwanda, they will establish physical offices and will be looking to recruit professionals.
"We are anticipating there will be a great deal of interest for highly specialized and qualified professionals in tax advisory or planning services, accountancy, investment management, as well corporate law and banking,” she said.
She added: "So it is really critical for us at this particular time to reach out and connect with different professionals.”
For the long term, Mudenge said, we will be upskilling our local sector but in the meantime, in the short term, we are really very much looking at reaching out to the diaspora especially professionals who are in these fields.