A Rwandan delegation comprising three ministers and the Central Bank Governor are among the over 1,000 delegates in Cape Town for the 2015 World Economic Forum on Africa that starts today. The delegates are drawn from over 75 countries and from Rwanda, ministers Claver Gatete (finance), Geraldine Mukeshimana (agriculture) and Jean-Philibert Nsengimana (youth and ICT) are attending the high-level forum. The two-day event will provide a platform for regional and global leaders from business, government and civil society to discuss ways of deepening the continent’s integration agenda and renew commitment to a sustainable path of growth and development. Governor John Rwangombwa will be one of the speakers during a session on the future of African capital markets, a new sector of economic development in many African countries including Rwanda. Currently, African capital markets attract about 1 percent of global private equity flows but Rwangombwa and other expert speakers on the subject will discuss how the region’s capital markets can be deepened and broadened. Key areas of focus will be on how to integrate and harmonize cross-border market regulation as well as increasing long-term corporate and government bonds while advancing initial public offering activity. Finance Minister Claver Gatete will also be an expert speaker on the subject of closing the economic equality gap in Africa where he’s expected to quote widely from Rwanda’s story on reducing poverty through inclusive economic policies in the past decade. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be the main speaker on the subject of meeting Africa’s infrastructure financing gap that currently requires US$93 billion every year but only slightly more than half the money is available leaving a gap of US$42 billion. Kaberuka is expected to talk about the role of AfDB’s new initiative, the Africa50 whose objective is to mobilize money for critical infrastructure projects on the continent. This year’s World Economic Forum on Africa is the 25th and comes at a time when the continent’s economic outlook is showing signs of resilience amidst an uncertain global economic terrain which presents a lot of threats to Africa’s growth. Over the past decade and a half, Africa has demonstrated a remarkable economic turnaround, growing two to three percentage points faster than global GDP, according to experts with regional growth projected to remain stable above 5 percent in 2015.
