Rwanda’s International Financial Centre woos Nigerian investors

The promoters of the Kigali International Financial Centre were in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, Wednesday to woo investors to Rwanda.

Rwanda is vying to become Africa’s financial hub with the International Financial Centre which connects investors to opportunities across the continent.

The Kigali International Financial Centre, which began operations in 2019, is already actively involved with investors from Africa, North America, Asia and Europe, with Africa accounting for over 50 percent of investments, according to Ntoudi Mouyelo, the chief investment officer at Rwanda Finance Ltd, the agency in charge of developing and promoting the Financial Centre.

Mouyelo who addressed a room of private equity investors and venture capitalists in the Lagos office of law firm, Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie (UUBO), said the Centre guarantees ease of operations for businesses.

“What we offer at the Kigali International Finance Centre are a set of laws, regulations, taxation, access to talent and experts that will help investors grow their business across Africa from Rwanda,” Mouyelo told BusinessDay.

“We believe we will see more fund managers from Nigeria coming to Kigali all establishing investment vehicles for investment around Africa,” Mouyelo added.

It took four days to incorporate a business in Rwanda in 2019, according to the World Bank ease of business index, one of the fastest on the continent and well ahead of the global average of 20 days.

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Mouyelo says it now takes six hours with complete Know Your Customer (KYC) documents. He also assured investors of zero foreign exchange controls in Rwanda and repatriation of profits without restriction.

“You can also open bank accounts in any currency of your choice and move money around without being questioned,” Mouyelo said. “These are fundamental to how we try to ensure ease of doing business.”

Rwanda was ranked the second easiest place to do business by the World Bank in 2019 and 38th globally.

One of the fastest growing economies in the world, the East African country of 12.2 million is known to have implemented policies and reforms contributing to a business environment that is generally conducive and attractive to investors.

Following a Covid 19-induced 3.4 percent contraction in 2020, Rwanda’s real GDP rebounded strongly by 10.9 percent in 2021, according to IMF data, on the back of a swift policy response to the pandemic, including an accelerated vaccination campaign.