Dr Justin Nsengiyumva has set up a ministerial committee to oversee the privatisation process
KIGALI — The Government has formally established a high-level Privatization Committee to oversee the transfer of state-owned enterprises and government shareholdings to private investors, signaling a major acceleration of country’s push toward private-sector-led growth.
The new structure has been created through an order by Prime Minister Dr. Justin Nsengiyumva published this week in the National Gazette.
The order operationalizes Rwanda’s 2024 privatization law and gives the government a formal mechanism to coordinate and supervise privatization transactions involving public assets and state-owned companies.
Under the new framework, the committee will be chaired by the minister in charge of public investment and will include: the Minister in charge of trade; the Minister in charge of justice; and the Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Development Board.
The committee is mandated to review and oversee privatization activities involving state-owned companies and government-held shares in commercial enterprises. Ministers responsible for sectors affected by proposed privatizations will also participate in decision-making.
The move marks the clearest institutional step yet in Rwanda’s evolving privatization agenda, which President Paul Kagame publicly outlined last year.
Speaking during a January 2025 media briefing, Kagame said the government had spent the previous two years identifying state entities that could eventually be privatized and removed from the government balance sheet.
“There is a team of people that has been following up on that,” Kagame said at the time, referring to internal reviews of public enterprises.
He linked the policy directly to Rwanda’s ambition to deepen capital markets, attract investment and reduce direct state involvement in sectors where private capital could play a larger role.
The privatization drive also comes against the backdrop of mounting pressure on the financial performance of state-owned enterprises.
A 2022 analysis by the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Auditor General found that the Government of Rwanda had invested in a wide portfolio of business enterprises and international institutions “for purposes of strategic public interest,” often through capital injections or acquisition of shares.
The report noted that, as of June 30, 2022, the government had investments in 26 state-owned enterprises and 14 international institutions in which Rwanda held minority controlling interests.
But the same assessment revealed significant financial strain across many public enterprises.
According to a review of quarterly performance reports by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 22 state-owned enterprises that submitted reports for the quarter ending September 2022 were facing financial difficulties linked to liquidity, profitability and solvency challenges.
Those findings likely reinforced government thinking around restructuring, commercialization and eventual privatization of some enterprises.
The government argues that privatization could help mobilize both domestic and foreign investment while improving efficiency and expanding participation on the Rwanda Stock Exchange.
Rwanda’s stock market recorded its strongest year yet in 2024, with turnover surpassing Rwf100 billion for the first time and reaching Rwf129 billion — a 126 percent increase from the previous year.
The market also saw new financial instruments including Rwanda’s first green bond and sustainability-linked bonds issued by private and public institutions.
Despite the growth, Rwanda’s capital market remains relatively small, with limited listed companies and low secondary market activity.
Pierre-Célestin Rwabukumba, the Rwanda Stock Exchange chief executive, recently argued that government privatization through capital markets could become a major driver of future expansion, particularly if large public enterprises eventually list shares publicly.
The privatization policy also comes as Rwanda faces growing financing needs tied to infrastructure, industrialization and long-term development ambitions.
Government financial statements show Rwanda spent more than Rwf4.58 trillion during the 2021/22 fiscal year, while external borrowing exceeded Rwf1.3 trillion.
Government has not yet published a definitive list of enterprises targeted for privatization under the new framework.
However, analysts expect sectors such as transport, logistics, energy, agro-processing, hospitality and state commercial holdings to feature prominently in future transactions.
Rwanda has previously pursued selective privatization efforts, including the restructuring of the former state transport company ONATRACOM, whose operations were later taken over by private operators including Rwanda Interlink Transport Company (Ritco), a national bus service.
The newly established committee will now serve as the government’s central coordinating body as Rwanda enters what could become its most ambitious privatization phase in decades.
