During the Covid-19 lockdown in May 2020, Natasha Mukeshimana, 24, decided to try out the idea of investing in Rwanda’s capital market. She had watched a program on the national broadcaster explaining the opportunities in the local capital market, and it interested her. At the time, she was a second year student at university and she did not have money for investing. However, since schools were closed during that period, she realized she could take advantage and invest the Rwf100,000 pocket money that was meant for her schooling expenses. “I thought, ‘why don’t I try this thing and see how it works?” she told Doing Business. “So, I took the money, asked where the Capital Market Authority (CMA) was located, and visited them. From there, they directed me to the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) and that is where I got some more information about the capital market. I got more interested, so I decided to put my money there,” she added. With the money, she bought close to 1,500 shares from Crystal Telecom. Each share was valued at Rwf70. “By doing this, I knew I was investing and saving, because I was planning to use the money when I finish university,” she said. After investing, she started following the capital market more closely to know what was transpiring, especially in regards to the changes in share prices. “In August 2020, I heard some information that the prices of CTL (Crystal Telecom) were improving. At that time, each share was at Rwf84. In just a few months, the value of each share had risen by Rwf14. That made me realise that the capital market thing is real,” she noted. Things just kept getting better and better the following year. At some point, each of her shares was worth Rwf269, after MTN acquired Crystal Telecom. “Can you imagine how much I gained?” she posed. “I started encouraging my colleagues to venture in the capital market too,” she added. Before the year ended, she decided to sell her shares. She got more than Rwf400,000 from them, on top of roughly Rwf30,000 that she got in dividends earlier. Mukeshimana then used some of the money to buy cheaper shares from a different counter, because she realised the capital market was good for her. Today, she is not only a client but a broker as well. From the capital market, she managed to raise some money that she invested in a new side business – a cleaning company. She invested about Rwf500,000 in buying equipment and paying a few workers to start off the company. Mukeshimana hopes to grow in the capital market business so that, in future, she can start investing in bonds.
