In Bugesera, just as with much of eastern Rwanda, the region requires climate adaptation financing to facilitate agriculture production

KIGALI, Rwanda — The African Development Bank plans to put more than $400 million into Rwanda’s agriculture sector over the next three years, as it seeks to shift some of its financing away from infrastructure and toward productive sectors.

The plan is contained in the Bank’s 2025 Rwanda Country Portfolio Performance Review, a report assessing the performance of its projects in Rwanda and setting out priorities for the coming years.

The proposed agricultural funding comes as the Bank’s active portfolio in Rwanda has expanded sharply. The portfolio was worth about $2.6 billion in November 2025, up 71 percent from November 2023, according to the review. This is the value of ongoing Bank-funded operations in Rwanda, not annual funding.

Since the Bank began working with Rwanda in 1974, cumulative lending has reached about $3.8 billion.

But most of the current portfolio is concentrated in infrastructure.

Water and sanitation account for 34 percent and energy 30 percent. Agriculture, by comparison, represents only a small share.

The Bank says this concentration creates a risk and could limit the case for more stand-alone infrastructure projects. It wants to increase support for agriculture and other productive sectors, in line with Rwanda’s development priorities.

The shift comes as the Bank also raises concerns about how quickly some projects are being implemented.

The review says 26 percent of the Rwanda portfolio was facing implementation challenges, up from 13 percent in 2023.

Procurement delays, lengthy approval processes, staff turnover and weaknesses in contract management are among the problems identified.

The Bank also says only 36 percent of its current Rwanda portfolio had been disbursed, meaning much of the approved financing had yet to be spent.

The Bank plans to address some of these problems through a “readiness-first” approach, requiring projects to have key staff, procurement plans and other requirements in place before implementation begins.

For agriculture, the coming three years could mark an important change in the Bank’s relationship with Rwanda.

The challenge will be to turn the planned funding into projects that raise agricultural production, create jobs and increase incomes — while avoiding the delays that have affected parts of the existing portfolio.

Existing Pipeline

The Bank’s existing pipeline in Rwanda includes major operations worth about $1.39 billion, including:

• Climate Smart Agriculture Results-Based Financing: $348 million
• Rwanda Energy Results-Based Financing: $300 million
• Rwanda Transformative Water and Sanitation: $250 million
• Burundi-Rwanda Integrated Development Project: $150 million
• Kigali Urban and Transport Integration: $100 million
• Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Engineering Phase II: $30 million
• Nature-Based Flood Adaptation: $12 million

The listed pipeline totals UA1.039 billion, equivalent to about $1.385 billion.

The figures point to an important conclusion: the Bank is not preparing to reduce its involvement in Rwanda. It is preparing to change what that involvement looks like.