After a long experience in supporting development cooperation in several African countries, including Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Eswatini, I thought the new project I was going to start in August 2019 in Rwanda would have represented a new challenging and interesting experience. I was wrong. It was much more.

I had the opportunity to oversee an innovative initiative to support Italian private green investments in Rwanda on behalf of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGG). The project was framed within a broader agreement for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Italian and Rwandan Ministries of the Environment signed in 2016 for a period of five years. The overall objective of the MoU is to support Rwanda in the field of climate change, vulnerability, mitigation, and adaptation.

Why it meant much more to me?

First and foremost, bringing together the two main engines of the economy, the institutions and the private sector is a win-win situation.

The second peculiarity that in my opinion makes this project unique is the country in which the project is being implemented: Rwanda. The economic and social development that the country experienced in recent years is quite impressive. To name some examples: an average growth of 7.6% over the last years; sustained and effective efforts to promote Rwanda as an attractive business and investments destination; a very good record in the ease of doing business as indicated in the Doing Business 2020 Report, where Rwanda ranks second at continental level; a very low level of corruption; a special care to gender equality and women’s empowerment. All this is framed within the "National Strategy for Transformation (NST1 2017–2024)” and "Vision 2050”, very ambitious development strategies aimed at the transformation of the Rwandan economy and aspiring to reach upper-middle-income status by 2035 and high-income status by 2050.

The third aspect of this project is the cross-cutting feature of this strategy which shows the strong commitment of the government towards green growth and environmental issues.

The Rwandan government has always paid great attention to environmental protection and the fight against the effects caused by climate change, promoting strategies and policies to facilitate green investments in the country.

I would like to give three concrete examples.

In the energy sector: In the last 10 years, access to electricity in Rwanda has significantly increased thanks to an ambitious investment plan and a balanced mix of energy sources. The target is to cover 100% of the population by 2024 with 48% of households reached by off-grid electricity and 52% by the grid. This will lead to increase and facilitate off-grid interventions, both mini-grids systems and solar home system installations, in remote areas with difficult access to the grid.

In August 2019, the Government adopted a law prohibiting the manufacturing, importation, use and sale of plastic carry bags and single-use plastic items. This law is an extension to the law banning plastic bags published in 2008, as the first initiative in the region.

This new regulation brought companies to adjust and identify new materials that can replace plastic such as bamboo and paper and will push the market to work on alternatives using local material. In this regard, Rwanda could be a pioneer in identifying plastic alternatives in collaboration with international partners.

The Rwandan Government is also particularly active in encouraging investments in the field of electric mobility and has recently presented a strategy with concrete opportunities for electric car assembling and incentives for the import of electric vehicles.

Against this framework and in such a favorable context, the immediate objective of the project has been to create a bridge between Italy and Rwanda and generate increased awareness on existing and upcoming opportunities. As a first step, the project carried out a thorough analysis of the business opportunities offered in Rwanda and identified key sectors for potential Italian investments.

However, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic affected the implementation of the project and we had to reshape it accordingly.  The B2B in Rwanda to be held in March 2020 was canceled.  Travel restrictions prevented entrepreneurs from traveling to Rwanda for the rest of the year 2020. But as Galileo Galilei said: "Behind every challenge, there is an opportunity". Therefore, the project that could have turned out in a failure, found its solution: the virtual world: thanks to several Webinars organized in 2020 and 2021, it was in fact possible to virtually get Italy and Rwanda closer and to facilitate several contacts both at institutional and entrepreneurial level in many sectors, such as energy, construction, agri-business, textile, and tourism. Both the Rwandan and the Italian Ambassadors were very supportive, and their personal commitment and participation were highly appreciated. The number of participants for each webinar was very high (an average of 160 people and more than 200 subscribers from both countries) and exceeded the most optimistic expectations.

This methodology showed a positive impact on the implementation of the project, received many positive feedbacks from the participants and should remain an important component of the project.

As a matter of fact, if a second phase of the project will be implemented as part of the new collaboration agreement with the Italian Ministry of the Ecological Transition - MiTE, it will allow moving to a more operational phase building on the bonds created and translating the high interest from many Italian entrepreneurs into concrete deliverables. The above-mentioned B2B remains a very promising event given the strong interest and the increasing demand of private sector operators. It could take place towards the end of 2021 or in the first quarter of 2022. In preparation of this landmark event, it will be important to work in close collaboration with all potential stakeholders and with the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), which has opened its desk-office in Kigali in January of 2020

Furthermore, it is suggested to consider the following aspects:

First, the strong involvement of both the Italian and Rwandan partners, as well as Institutions, Private sector Federations, professional association, private companies, and civil society as crucial to the achievement of the identified objectives. It is recommended to intensify the communication with MiTE and other Italian stakeholders, for the identification of Italian potential investors, and for the implementation of the bilateral cooperation. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the excellent relations established between GGGI and the relevant Rwandan stakeholders, especially from REMA, PSF and RDB.

Moreover, during the implementation of the project, it emerged that there is still a low level of knowledge and understanding about green economy. In the framework of the foreseen following phase of implementation of the new MoU, activities targeting public Institutions, the private sector and the civil society on knowledge sharing about the meanings of green economy and how the private sector can benefit from these in different areas (agriculture and agri-business, buildings, textile, etc.) should be strengthened.

All of the above confirms that Rwanda is not only the land of a thousand hills but also the country of a million opportunities.

The project delivered great results in putting Rwanda on the radar screen of Italian investors. It generated a new understanding about the conducive business environment and the ambitious development objectives of the country. The project filled a gap and constituted a platform for dialogue between Italian and Rwandan actors.

The number and the quality of the interactions initiated through the project and the conclusion of the first contracts are very encouraging and a matter of pride for GGGI and all the partners involved.

The author is a private sector consultant at GGGI.