It was amazing to return to this great country last week in my role as the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Rwanda. I visited in 2019 and again during CHOGM, and I am enthused by the progress made, despite the difficulties faced as a result of the global pandemic, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Rwanda’s resilience and ambition is to be admired.
The UK supports Rwanda’s acceleration towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our long-term partnerships are mutually respectful, beneficial, and accountable and draw on the full range of UK strengths and expertise to tackle shared global problems. We work to support sustainable growth and poverty reduction, including mitigating climate change, reforming the global financial system, and empowering women and girls.
During my visit I had the pleasure of meeting with His Excellency President Kagame and many of his Ministerial team. We discussed the full range of areas where the UK and Rwanda can work together to increase trade, investment and prosperity. There are great opportunities on the horizon, and the UK has the knowledge, expertise, and desire to partner Rwanda through this journey.
British Investment Partnerships
The UK has a competitive trade and investment offer. British Investment Partnerships are a central pillar of the UK’s International Development Strategy.
These are the primary way in which the UK delivers its commitment to facilitating high-quality investment in developing countries. This includes development finance institutions such as British International Investment (BII, formerly known as CDC), and InfraCo Africa.
I was pleased to learn in my meeting with Rwanda Finance Limited that the collaboration between BII and the Kigali International Finance Centre is making strong progress, and I am confident that this partnership will attract greater investment.
The UK export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF) has the appetite to provide up to £2bn investment to Rwanda, supporting projects that contain only 20% UK content. The vast majority of economic sectors are supported including capital goods, services as well as intangibles. UKEF can support both public and private sector transactions. UKEF is able to offer long-term financing solutions, in the form of direct loans or unconditional guarantees to banks, allowing buyers to spread the costs of capital goods and services. I would like to explore further how we could work with the Kigali International Finance Centre, among others, to bring these investments to Rwanda.
Clean green growth
Under the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment the UK is actively looking to expand and support Rwanda to access the investment and build the infrastructure it needs to ensure green and inclusive growth. Together the UK and Rwanda co-chair the Taskforce for Access to Climate Finance, and at COP27 the UK committed £7m to Ireme Invest.
It may be tempting to consider investment options that deliver only short-term rewards, but I would encourage decision makers in the private and public sector to consider Rwanda’s long-term strategic goals when choosing investment partners. Our free, fair and honest trading relationship puts the UK in a strong place to help with this.
Global partnerships are vital to tackling climate change and the risks of inaction and benefits of action extend far beyond the environment. Our economies and global security will suffer if we do not meet our climate commitments. When I return to London, I look forward to hosting a roundtable with potential investors to build on the discussions I have had this week.
UK-Africa Investment Summit 2024
The next big event on the agenda is the UK-African Investment Summit in London on 23-24 April 2024. The Summit will build on the results of the UK-African Investment Summit 2020 and virtual UK-African Investment Conferences in 2021 and 2022. The 2020 Summit marked an important milestone in our partnerships with African countries and announced over £6.5 billion of deals, plus a further £8.9 billion of investment commitments. At the Summit in 2020 the World Bank issued its first Rwandan Franc local currency bond on the London Stock Exchange. This gives international investors’ exposure to Rwanda and supports development of the local capital market. The next Summit will go even further in our pursuit to create jobs and growth, supporting British and African talent in sectors such as finance and technology, and promote women entrepreneurs.
I am proud of what has been achieved, but there is more to be done. Rwanda has built a reputation as a great country for UK investment, and I will do my part to highlight the opportunities. I look forward to my next visit where I hope to see significant progress on the themes discussed this week, which will deliver clean green infrastructure and investments that will benefit ALL Rwandans.