Rwanda’s sovereign wealth, Agaciro Development Fund, celebrates 10 years of contributing to the country’s socio-economic development since its inception with a total of Rwf284 billion in stock value.
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It was established in 2012 as an emergency fund receiving voluntary contributions from Rwandans across the world and friends of Rwanda, with an average of $300,000 per month. The contributions were phased out in April 2020 to find other sources of income from investments.
According to Gilbert Nyatanyi, the CEO of the fund, this has been a journey of challenges, but they have also seen satisfying results which they look forward to building on and sustaining the progress.
Since 2018, Agaciro Development Fund (AgDF) became a shareholder in 29 companies, both national and international, as a way of finding diverse sources of income while streamlining and maximising the value of their shareholding.
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"In our portfolio, we had two to three companies paying dividends and we are now at eight to nine companies paying dividends to AgDF, which means that progressively, we are trying to maximise the value of our shareholding,” he said.
The 10-year journey will be highly celebrated in the upcoming 2nd annual meeting of the African Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF) slated for July 6 and 7, in Kigali.
It will bring together different authorities in the sovereign wealth funds ecosystem, and government officials, among others, with a focus on assessing challenges and exploring development opportunities on the continent across all sectors of the economy.
Representatives will come from ASIF 10 member countries including Angola, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa, in addition to Mauritius and Ethiopia that will come as special invitees to the forum.
In 2022, AgDF became a co-founder of ASIF, a continental sovereign wealth forum of 10 members that aims at consolidating efforts for the development of Africa by Africans.
AgDF is also a member and holds an advisory seat in the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, a forum for almost all sovereign wealth funds across the globe.
"As AgDF, a lot has changed from 2012 to 2022, and we need to reposition ourselves. We want to see the low-hanging fruits that we as 10 African countries can leverage and create wealth to the benefit of African people,” Nyatanyi noted.
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Moving from an income-collecting fund to an income-generating fund, he said, AgDF is working on a new strategic plan for the coming years where they will decide whether to continue as sector-agnostic investors or make investments in specific sectors that are priority in the development of the country.
"We have a very ambitious leadership and Agaciro is equally ambitious. We currently have a value of $284 million and we want to achieve $300 million by the end of this year, and we hope to be at $1 billion by 2030.”
Nyatanyi emphasised that the fund is built on foundations of transparency and accountability, whereby they are able to provide explanations on what was done and future endeavours to the contributors or stakeholders at any given moment.
Over the last three years of global economic shaking due to the impacts of Covid-19 that caused supply chain disruption—with an added impact of the Russia-Ukraine war that contributed to global inflation—Rwanda’s economy was not spared but also faced poor agricultural production caused by climate change.
AgDF’s future strategic plan takes into account giving back to the people by playing an active role in contributing to the socio-economic development of Rwandans at the macro and micro-economic levels, according to Nyatanyi.
For instance, the fund is investing in the establishment of Rwanda Fertiliser Company Ltd, a fertiliser manufacturing plant to respond to the critical need for fertiliser production on the continent.
The investment made by AgDF is worth $3 million, which might be increased if there is a need to, he disclosed. The plant is being constructed in partnership with a local company called APTC and OCP Africa from Morocco.
The plant is expected to kick-start operations by the end of September 2023.