Rwandans must take advantage of our own investment climate

Foreign Policy (FP), a world-renowned magazine on Monday published its yearly Baseline Profitability Index (BPI), which put Rwanda among the best ten countries to invest in.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Foreign Policy (FP), a world-renowned magazine on Monday published its yearly Baseline Profitability Index (BPI), which put Rwanda among the best ten countries to invest in.

BPI ranks countries by their overall attractiveness as targets for foreign investment based on three components: asset growth, preservation of value and repatriation of capital.  In other words, FP believes that Rwanda is one of the best five countries to sink money into simply because of its profit margins.While FP’s BPI is geared towards foreign investors, it should also be a clarion call to Rwandans. For too long Rwandans, especially university graduates, have looked to the Government for employment. That time is past. The country is ripe for new ideas. There is funding available either in the commercial banks or Saccos; there is a legislative framework that reduces red tape and, with the increasing amounts of money in people’s pockets, there is market willing to spend. Throw in the fact that the political leadership has ensured that corruption –the Achilles Heel of many developing nations–is fought tooth and nail, and one has no reason not to participate in the private sector There is no time to waste. The Private Sector is where the money is.