The final day of Umushyikirano, or National Dialogue, when Rwandans both in Rwanda and around the world come together to evaluate national progress, with economic development given particular emphasis.
Two days earlier, an event that extended Rwanda’s global economic cooperation has the potential to be part of the answer to the challenges often highlighted at Umushyikirano.
Brazil pivots to Africa for economic cooperation, and thanks to Rwanda’s business-friendly environment, a reputation as a safe, organized, welcoming country, it has been chosen as the home base from which businesses will fan out to the rest of Africa.
Few, if any, of the delegates at the Rwanda-Brazil Economic Cooperation Forum in Kigali’s Serena Hotel will have been aware of the importance of Umushyikirano in creating the kind of conditions, like safety, organization, intolerance of corruption, for which Rwanda is now rightly known.
This year’s Umushyikirano is the 20th since they began. At some point during those meetings, challenges such as fighting corruption, administrative efficiency, service delivery will have been addressed.
It is in no small measure because of the unsparingly trenchant self-examination at Umushyikirano meetings that the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) was able to confidently, proudly present the opportunities Rwanda offered to the Brazil business delegation.
The delegation included Brazil’s own answer to the RDB, ApexBrasil, the country’s business promotion agency, represented by its director, Mrs. Ana Repezza, who will no doubt have exchanged copious notes with RDB’s CEO, Jean Guy Africa. Inevitably, there were Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed, among them, RDB and ApexBrasil and ApexBrasil and Rwanda’s Private Sector Federation (PSF).
The RDB presented investment opportunities in almost every part of the economy, from agriculture, with the introduction of the Gako project, a multimillion beef and leather venture, by Paulo Pan of the Beyond Africa Fund, tourism, health, manufacturing, education, and finance to name only a few.
To answer any and all questions were representatives from almost every ministry, including the Minister of Health, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, State Minister for Education, Claudette Irere, and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Prudence Sebahizi.
Accompanying ApexBrasil were representatives from Brazil ministries of Agriculture, health, environment, and many others, supported by the country’s ambassador to Rwanda, Irene Vida Gala.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that there is a thread linking the possibilities promised by the forum, many of which will almost certainly be realized, the spirit of self-examination at Umushyikirano, and Brazil’s investment in Africa.
Umushyikirano, a unique form of participatory democracy and an important part of Rwanda’s nation-building, plays its part in strengthening the foundation of a Rwanda where other nations, in this instance Brazil, feel confident to establish a base from which they can launch investment in Africa as a whole.
What was achieved at Umushyikirano helps not only the transformation of Rwanda but may indirectly leave an impact on other parts of the continent.
“I have been to Rwanda eleven times,” says a member of the Brazilian delegation, Renato Solano, “every single time, progress…”
