Author: Wycliffe Nyamasege

The discussions took place on the sidelines of the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, where both leaders explored avenues to enhance collaboration between Rwanda and Qatar.

According to a statement from the Office of the President, Village Urugwiro, the talks reviewed the strong ties between the two countries and identified opportunities for further cooperation.

“This morning in Doha, President Kagame met with His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, on the sidelines of the Second World Summit for Social Development. Their discussions focused on the excellent relations between Rwanda and the State of Qatar, and the multiple areas of fruitful bilateral collaboration,” the statement read.

The leaders last met on September 12, 2025, during President Kagame’s official visit to Qatar.

Rwanda and Qatar share strong cooperation in areas including investment, tourism, and transport, reflecting Rwanda’s strategy of fostering diplomacy based on mutual respect, peace, and development.

In the aviation sector, Qatar Airways has agreed to acquire a 60 % stake in Rwanda’s Bugesera International Airport project and is also seeking a 49 % stake in the national carrier, RwandAir, as part of a broader aviation and transport partnership.

The announcement was made during an extraordinary general assembly of shareholders held on November 2, 2025, where members also elected a new Board of Directors to replace the outgoing leadership that had served since 2016.

The outgoing board was chaired by Peter Nkubara, who has been succeeded by Jonathan Gatera as the new Board Chair.

Presenting the institution’s performance highlights, Nkubara noted that Goshen Finance had maintained consistent growth across key indicators, including assets, loan portfolio, and customer base.

“When we took over in 2016, total assets stood at Frw 3.1 billion. Today, we leave behind a stronger institution with assets worth Frw 24 billion, according to the financial report released in September 2025,” Nkubara said.

Over the same period, the institution’s loan portfolio expanded from Frw 2 billion to Frw 20 billion, while its customer base grew from 20,000 clients in 2016 to more than 70,000 in 2025. Including clients under cooperatives, the total now exceeds 100,000.

Goshen Finance also increased its branch network from six in 2016 to nine in 2025, strengthening its footprint across key districts.

Speaking during the assembly, Goshen Finance Managing Director Ignace Musangamfura, commended the outgoing board for its stewardship and commitment to good governance, which he said laid a solid foundation for sustained growth.

“I sincerely thank this outgoing board because they ensured strong corporate governance, which is crucial for growth. A company can’t thrive without a board that sets strategic direction, ensures compliance, and upholds standards set by oversight institutions like the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR),” Musangamfura said.

He pledged close collaboration with the newly elected board to sustain the institution’s momentum and implement ongoing digital transformation projects aligned with the country’s financial inclusion and innovation agenda.

“As an institution still in its growth journey, we recognise that we are operating in a highly digital era. Some of our technology-related projects have been delayed due to limited capital. We therefore need to strengthen investment in the coming years, and it’s encouraging to see shareholders showing strong commitment,” he added.

The new Board of Directors, chaired by Jonathan Gatera, includes Dr. Charles Hategekimana, Lois Nyirasoni, Vivien Niyomugenga, and Josephine Mugeni.

Founded in 2005 as a COPEC, Goshen Finance Plc was licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) in 2008 to operate as a microfinance institution. The institution now operates nine branches in Nyarugenge, Ruhango, Kimironko, Musanze, Nyabugogo, Rubavu, Remera, Downtown, and Rwamagana. The institution employs around 100 staff members.

Speaking on the opening day of the three-day UN summit at the Qatar National Convention Centre, hosted by Qatar, the Head of State credited Rwanda’s transformation to policies that place people at the centre of every decision.

“Social protection, community participation and accountability are firmly embedded in how we govern,” he said. “Every policy decision by our institutions is concerned with advancing quality of life.”

Thirty years after the landmark Copenhagen Declaration, Kagame acknowledged global gains in reducing extreme poverty and expanding access to education and healthcare, but warned that persistent inequalities demand faster, smarter governance.

“These challenges are not new, but our governance systems have not evolved fast enough to solve them,” he said.

He urged leaders to keep “the pendulum swinging in the right direction” by prioritising human capital above all else. “For development to be sustained, it cannot be outsourced,” Kagame declared.

Rwanda’s own trajectory exemplifies this approach. Since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the country has achieved near-universal health coverage through its Community-Based Health Insurance (Mutuelles de Santé), now reaching over 90 percent of the population and helping lift life expectancy from around 26 years in 1993 to 69.9 years today.

In education, the rollout of free basic schooling has driven near-universal primary enrollment, while initiatives like the Vision Umurenge Programme (VUP) provide cash transfers, public works jobs, and financial services to the poorest households, promoting income generation and social cohesion.

These efforts have yielded tangible results. The latest Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV7), released in April 2025, shows Rwanda’s national poverty rate plummeting by 12.4 percentage points over seven years, from 39.8 percent in 2017 to 27.4 percent in 2024, lifting approximately 1.5 million people out of poverty.

Extreme poverty also fell sharply to 3.1 percent, with rural electricity access surging from 34.4 percent to 72 percent and mobile phone ownership rising to 84.6 percent.

President Kagame also called for a reset in global partnerships, criticising imbalanced cooperation that excludes most of the world.

“For multilateral engagement to be effective, [it] will need to be tailored to delivering universal, measurable and timely results, not promises,” he said.

On global finance, Kagame insisted that institutions must become “more fit for purpose” and create fiscal space for countries to adapt and grow.

“If we are serious about social development, then our solutions must serve the needs of all countries, not just a few.”

Concluding his remarks, President Kagame said Rwanda stands ready to collaborate.

“We should expect more challenges in the near future and prepare to prevent and manage them,” he said. “Rwanda stands ready to work with all our partners to build a more inclusive and resilient future.”

The summit, running through November 6 and convened under UN General Assembly resolutions 78/261 and 78/318, brings together heads of state, UN officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, and civil society to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development amid global uncertainties such as conflicts and climate volatility.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the United Nations received credible reports of the crimes against civilians, including women and children, from within the barricaded North Darfur state’s capital.

“Hundreds of civilians, including humanitarian workers, have reportedly been killed, while large numbers remain trapped inside the city with little or no communication to the outside world,” OCHA said.

“The delivery of life-saving assistance remains blocked by the RSF, contrary to its obligation under international humanitarian law to facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of such relief.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that nearly 71,000 people have fled El Fasher and surrounding areas since the city’s fall on Oct. 26, most to overcrowded camps in the town of Tawila, 40 kilometers away, while many new arrivals have reported killings, abductions and sexual violence along the way.

Conditions in Tawila are dire, with families living in the open or in makeshift shelters, food stocks running out and clean water scarce, said OCHA. “The UN and its partners are providing emergency assistance, including daily meals, healthcare, water, sanitation, nutrition and psychosocial support, but these efforts cover only a fraction of the needs due to funding constraints.”

Violence in the Kordofan region has also sharply escalated, triggering large-scale displacement and civilian suffering, said the office, noting that grave violations, including the alleged summary execution of civilians, have been reported in North Kordofan’s locality of Bara.

The IOM said that between October 26 and 31, approximately 37,000 people were displaced from Bara, Um Rawaba and surrounding villages. Civilians face mounting insecurity, food shortages and the destruction of basic infrastructure.

With just two months left in the year, the 2025 response plan for Sudan is only 28 percent funded, with 1.17 billion U.S. dollars received of the 4.16 billion dollars required, said OCHA, calling for urgent, flexible funding to support the millions of people caught in the Sudan conflict.

Speaking during a press conference at the Sudanese Embassy in Kigali, Dafalla called on the international community to designate the RSF as a terrorist organisation, enforce arms embargoes, and hold foreign backers accountable for fueling what he described as a “foreign aggression” against the Sudanese people.

“What is going on in Sudan is not a civil war; what is going on in Sudan is not a war between two generals, it is a war ignited by RSF supported by foreign powers,” Dafalla declared.

“In Al-Fashir alone, in 24 hours, they killed 3,000 people, including patients in hospital beds. They buried people alive, smashed bones under vehicle tires, and used rape and hunger as weapons of war.”

The ambassador’s statement comes amid mounting reports of mass killings following the RSF’s capture of Al-Fashir after a gruelling 600-day siege, the last major Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) stronghold in Darfur.

Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab has documented satellite imagery showing clusters of bodies and bloodstained ground, corroborating survivor accounts of house-to-house executions targeting non-Arab ethnic groups like the Zaghawa and Masalit.

Dafalla, who praised Rwanda’s 2003 peacekeeping role in Darfur and its post-genocide reconciliation model as an “inspired African success,” drew stark parallels to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

“The same symptoms are repeating themselves in Sudan,” he said. “Genocide has been committed in Darfur, not just our claim, but recognised by the U.S. administration and others as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing.”

Videos played during the briefing, reportedly filmed by RSF fighters, showed executions in hospitals and civilians being herded into mass graves, footage that left attendees visibly shaken.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed at least 460 deaths at Al-Fashir’s Saudi Hospital alone, including patients, staff, and visitors gunned down in their beds. Survivors fleeing to nearby Tawila have recounted ethnic profiling, with men separated and shot, women assaulted, and families ransomed for up to $10,000.

The RSF, which evolved from the notorious Janjaweed militias blamed for the early 2000s Darfur genocide, has denied systematic abuses, with leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) promising investigations into “violations.” Yet, the paramilitary’s advance has displaced over 900,000 people from Al-Fashir in recent weeks, contributing to Sudan’s staggering total of 14 million internally displaced, equivalent to Rwanda’s entire population.

The briefing also highlighted broader RSF tactics: 102 recorded massacres across Sudan, infrastructure sabotage (including drone strikes on the Marawi and Addamazine dams, crippling a third of the nation’s power), and control of gold mines fueling 50% of Sudan’s smuggled production.

“They’re killing by identity, believing in Arab superiority, calling African tribes ‘slaves’—falangai in their language,” Amb. Dafalla explained.

On the diplomatic front, Dafalla welcomed U.S. efforts via the “Quad” (U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE) but rejected UAE involvement as “non-neutral,” insisting on Sudan’s full consent for any ceasefire.

He urged the African Union to lift Sudan’s suspension, enabling fuller participation in “African solutions for African problems,” and called for Rwanda’s support in pressuring neighbours to close arms corridors.

“Justice is not served by condemnations alone. The victims feel betrayed. Hold the RSF accountable, or the genocide continues.”

The ambassador emphasised that, in efforts to de-escalate the crisis, the African Union had announced Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni as a mediator to facilitate a peace process. However, Ambassador Dafalla said the AU had failed to deliver on its mission of restoring security in Sudan and, for many reasons, looked to Rwanda as a potential mediator capable of making a tangible impact.

He noted that influential African leaders, such as President Paul Kagame, are well-positioned to use established continental frameworks to help mediate and resolve the Sudanese conflict.

“Kagame has credibility, the confidence of the Sudanese people, experience, and wisdom to address this conflict in Sudan. We will definitely welcome his efforts in this regard, whether through the African Union or any group of African leaders coming to mediate in Sudan,” the ambassador added.

Sudan’s crisis, the world’s largest humanitarian emergency, has killed tens of thousands and risks partitioning the nation. With Al-Fashir’s fall, fears mount of a Darfur-wide ethnic catastrophe, unless bold international action intervenes.

More than 200 golfers, from seasoned competitors to ambitious newcomers, took to the fairways over two thrilling days of competition, culminating in an elegant prize-giving dinner hosted at the all-new Mövenpick Hotel Kigali and co-sponsored by Johny Walker. It was an evening defined by class, camaraderie, fine dining, great drinks and applause for excellence, both on the greens and beyond.

The tournament brought together the region’s top talent, producing some of the year’s most impressive performances. Jenny Linda, who captured the Best Gross Score Ladies title, dazzled with consistency and composure, while Mukisa Benjamin earned Best Gross Score Men honours after a brilliant round that demonstrated poise under pressure.

Among the seniors, David Rwiyamirira proved that age and experience are a formidable combination, taking the Best Gross Score Seniors title.

The men’s divisions were equally competitive, from David Nzioki’s masterful play in Division A to Rwigamba Paul’s dominance in Division B and Ndabarasa Alfred’s steady rise to victory in Division C. On the women’s side, Irene Wanjiku, Sheetal Philip, and Eve Tushabe continued to showcase the growing strength of women’s golf in Rwanda, each delivering rounds that balanced power with precision.

Beyond the individual victories, the event underscored a bigger story, one of growth, inclusion, and ambition for Rwandan golf. With every edition, the level of play has risen remarkably, signalling a sport in transformation and a community finding its rhythm on the regional stage.

Speaking at the prize-giving ceremony, Maurice Toroitich, Managing Director of NCBA Bank Rwanda, reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to nurturing this momentum.

“We’re proud to walk this journey with the golf community, to support not only tournaments but the businesses that take shape beyond the course. NCBA is here for more than sport; we are here for partnership, for progress, and for possibility.”

As the night ended with laughter, toasts, and plans for next year’s series, one message rang clear: The NCBA Golf Series is now firmly embedded as one of the most anticipated golf events in the country. It was a celebration of shared values: excellence, resilience, and vision. And as NCBA continues to drive both business and sport forward, the future of Rwandan golf looks not only bright but truly boundless.