Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) and the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa (SDGC/A Office) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening financial inclusion and financial sector development in Rwanda. The agreement was signed by the AFR Country Director, Jean Bosco Iyacu and Caroline Makasa, Acting Director General of the SDGC/A Office on April 23, 2021, in Kigali. This new partnership will strengthen the development, adaptation, and delivery of best practices, knowledge, technologies, and policies to contribute to the acceleration of financial inclusion and inclusive economic growth, which is a critical enabler for the attainment of the SDGs in Rwanda. AFR and SDGC/A Office said that it will facilitate long-term collaboration between the two institutions based on their complementary interest and capacities. This reflects both parties’ willingness to work together on key matters related to promoting financial inclusion and financial development, which is vital to the achievement of Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), Vision 2050 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). AFR Country Director, Jean Bosco Iyacu said that it is in line with the SDG 17 on partnerships and the two institutions seek to build synergies by sharing expertise and as development partners, helping the Government of Rwanda to achieve the SDGs. “We believe a robust and inclusive financial sector plays a very important role in facilitating the achievement of the SDGs and institutional collaboration as highlighted in SDG 17 on Partnerships for the goals is of paramount importance,” said AFR Country Director, Jean Bosco Iyacu. He indicated that this collaboration with the SDGC/A is timely as AFR enters a new five years’ strategy aiming to facilitate a diverse and inclusive financial sector that delivers real value to the economy and people, in particular, unserved and underserved populations. Improving livelihoods The partnership, Iyacu said, came from a desire to move to financial sector development 2.0 (FSD 2.0) – which seeks to achieve real and social sector outcomes more explicitly. “We have been supporting or promoting financial inclusion in Rwanda since 2010; … this time we want to see how financial inclusion cannot only just avail financial services to different people especially low-income people, but make sure that this inclusion and usage of financial services translate into better livelihoods but also increased income and economic growth or economic transformation,” Iyacu said. He said that the FinScope report – which looks at the landscape of financial inclusion in Rwanda – that was launched last year indicated that 93 percent of Rwandans were financially included, which he said is a good achievement of a country. But, he said, the issue behind that figure is that there are some of the segments [of the population] that are still left behind, citing women and youth, smallholder farmers, as well as informal workers in general, whom he said need certain attention. “Some of the productive sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing do not have enough finance to further contribute to the country’s desired economic growth,” he said, indicating that partnerships like this help look at those sectors that still need some support so that they are fully included in economic growth. Financial inclusion has been embedded in many of the SDGs, which underscores its critical importance that creates conditions for the SDGs to be within reach, said Caroline Makasa, Acting Director-General of the SDGC/A Office. “Given the increasing empirical evidence on the role of financial inclusion in the achievement of SDGs, it should get more priority than before. In this regard, the collaboration between AFR and the SDGC/A is a timely one that will contribute a lot in moving towards full and equal access to formal financial services for all in Rwanda,” she remarked.
