We help you get
closer to your customers.

Setting the bar for all of Rwanda

There is a palpable sense of hope and expectancy here in Rwanda. We spent a full day yesterday in a workshop with senior government, international donor agencies, and early-stage entrepreneurs, wrestling with models of how to help Rwanda lift itself out of poverty and into prosperity.

The session opened with a very direct, clear-headed speech from President Paul Kagame on the importance of partnerships, not handouts. He is looking for investors, not donors. He is very skeptical of relief agencies that encourage dependency. His vision for eliminating poverty is to build an entrepreneurial class in Rwanda that can build small and medium-size businesses to create wealth and employ Rwandans. One of the most important policy steps he has taken to encourage investment is to institute a zero tolerance policy for corruption. And he has been consistent in prosecuting violators.

President Kagame seems to know that transformation of his country will not be easy, but he is setting a disciplined example. I had breakfast this morning with a young entrepreneur who told me a story that illustrates this point. A few months ago he mandated that his government office would begin work at 7am. Anyone not in the office by 7am would be turned away. A Canadian consultant who had just begun working for the government got caught up in traffic and didn’t get to the gate until 7:10. The guard politely informed her that she would not be admitted. She protested, and his reply was simply, “Didn’t you see the president’s circular?” She had to turn around and return to her hotel room.

This kind of example gives me a sense of optimism that this African leader is serious about changing his country.