Author: Sam K. Nkurunziza

This ambition isn’t new. Rwanda’s Vision 2050 and the National Strategy for Transformation 2017–2024 have long set the stage for the country to emerge as a hub for financial services in Africa. As part of this broader vision, the Kigali International Financial Centre was established to transform the investment landscape across the country and to attract global capital and funds.

But why Rwanda? In a continent where Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa dominate fintech conversations, what makes Rwanda stand out? Despite facing significant challenges, Rwanda presents a compelling case study on how a focused national strategy and investment in technology can transform a country’s financial landscape.

Rwanda’s ability to innovate and adapt, coupled with its commitment to digital inclusion and progressive policies, has positioned it as a rising fintech hub that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Peace Aimee Niyibizi, World Bank Country Economist for Rwanda stated that, “Rwanda’s economy showcased resilience and adaptability, achieving a robust growth rate in 2023, amidst a series of challenging external and domestic factors”.

Last year the country’s GDP was 8.2% – significantly higher than other countries including Nigeria (2.74%); Kenya (5%) and South Africa (0.6%). The growth can be attributed to agricultural modernization, industrial expansion, service sector growth, pro-business government policies, digital innovation and the rise of fintech.

Lily Umutesi Ngarambe, Yellow Card’s Country Manager for Rwanda, expresses her excitement about how fintechs are revolutionising the financial sector. “Fintechs are blurring the boundaries of traditional financial firms and the financial sector.

This presents a paradigm shift that has various policy implications such as fostering beneficial innovation and competition, while managing the risks. In addition, it supports reviewing regulatory, supervisory, and oversight frameworks to ensure they remain fit for purpose and enable the authorities to foster a safe, efficient, and inclusive financial system.”

Rwanda’s transformation into a fintech powerhouse is the result of a deliberate and sustained effort to leverage technology for economic growth. From the Vision 2020 plan which aimed to transition the country into a knowledge-based economy, to the 2001 ICT Policy that laid the groundwork for digital innovation, Rwanda has been building the infrastructure necessary for a thriving fintech sector.

The government’s commitment is further exemplified by initiatives like the One Laptop Per Child program and the establishment of numerous tech hubs and innovation centres across Kigali.

In the broader context, fintechs like Yellow Card with innovative products like the Payments API and its on and off ramp Widget have been instrumental in opening up greater business financial opportunities to companies looking to do business in Africa.

So, while the big players in African fintech might be drawing the most attention, don’t lose sight of Rwanda. This small but mighty nation is poised to make significant strides in the fintech space—strides that could reshape not just its own economy, but the entire African continent’s financial landscape.

The author of this opinion is a Rwandan Senior Brand Communications Manager based in South Africa

Everything is accommodation now; Artists are compromising their experiences, rawness, honesty and humanity to accommodate endlessly with a system that puts a value to their creation and shapeshifts it into a product because things only have value if there is a price to them.

To survive is to sell your results, and when the results are the thing on the market, then your process does not matter. It does not matter how you got there, as long as the value of the ‘product’ that got there is deemed worthy.

So we use AI, a new efficient tool that makes everything a hundred times easier, faster, better and perfect. What used to take hours to imagine, can be generated in seconds, the steps of creating anything have been reduced to three steps.

Having an idea, having the right words to express that idea, having the right taste to edit whatever is given to make it even better. It is the ultimate ‘thinker’ and you are just a mere artist trying to communicate ‘great art’, so AI becomes your go to.

It helps you gain your confidence in making even your smallest ideas, big, it gives you alternatives, it grades your work, guides you, makes it for you, anything you want, you get. It is a pretty good deal.

And in order to live a more functional prosperous life, you can be a capitalist creator, someone who sees what could sell more in the eyes of the public, jump on trends and get inside the loop. It is a comfortable life.

Here I am not talking about making money as an artist. I am talking about making great art that speaks to you as the person who created it. I am talking about growing as an artist.
You don’t need AI to make better art, you need to become a better artist

When I started working and writing different copies and documents for a living, I was new at noticing what corporate words to use, or what the right wording of ads was, so I used AI a lot. I mean a lot. There is plenty of AI tools to help me with almost anything.

At first, it was schooling me, teaching me this and that, correcting me when I made things sound too light for a company’s voice. I was learning, and growing in a short time. It was great. Then I started surrendering, I would have a short time to work on something, and let AI do everything for me, and edit it out to make it sound a bit less uptight and more human.

I may have created writings but I wasn’t a writer anymore. I was just good at giving it the right information for the right output. Like a puppet master, I was getting good at pulling the strings to make great things.

But I was not growing, I stayed where I was, I had also started losing sight on who the puppet in that performance was. So, I took a step back, and got back to why I started writing in the first place.
I loved challenging my mind, and working out how this amazing thing that I can only see inside myself can turn out as good outside. I loved the process.

Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist, when shown how AI can transform the animation industry in ways humans cannot fathom, he responded in a reasonable way considering he is one of the greatest and most skilled artists to ever exist.

He said he was ‘utterly disgusted’, that it was an insult to life itself and that, “We humans are losing faith in ourselves.” Believing that you don’t have enough time, skill and knowledge to do something is a lie.

Making art is supposed to be hard, it is supposed to take time, because being human is complex, life itself is complex, and using a machine to understand yourself and life will confine us in a small box of who we already are, in a way that we will never discover everything we could be.

The lack of genuine emotions and connections in creations now is because people never cared about other people’s creations unless it benefited them. Businesses will accept mediocrity as long as it makes profit. No one will care about your art the same way you do. It is all up to you, the artist.

In a Youtube Video by Drew Gooden titled ‘AI is ruining the internet’, Drew Gooden said, “How are you ever gonna do something for ten years if you won’t even do it for one day?”

If you want to become a filmmaker, prompting AI to make you a script will not teach you anything about becoming a good filmmaker. Movies will start to look all the same. We already have those. We already have great films, what we need is YOUR film.

I am telling everyone to stop being so in love with the results just because the outside world will reward you for it. There are so many more things to create and understand in ourselves. We urgently need to stop allowing something we created, re-create us and define who we are.

If you are an artist who likes to use AI, try to create one thing a week without using any. Try it for a month, then three, try it for forever. If you don’t have time, make time for it.

Whatever your age is, rushing your growth for the sake of being paid for it is scamming yourself. We are lying to ourselves, tools are only ever useful to help us while we grow, not erase our journeys. The more we use AI to express things, the more we erase our footprints and redefine ourselves through the eyes of something that does not exist.

Becoming fluent in creating art is an intellectual pursuit. All well-known art forms like painting, music, dance, literature, fashion, sculpture, filmmaking, photography, and emerging mediums like digital art, have always been about their processes and their artists being passionate enough to go through it all.
Passion is beautifully human, and cultivating it is what will keep us from straying from ourselves.

The author of this opinion is a digital strategist, creative entrepreneur and a very passionate mental health advocate