President Kagame receives members of the World Alliance of International Financial Centers

Kagame hosted them at Village Urugwiro on Tuesday 22nd March 2022.

Through Rwanda Finance Limited (RFL), Rwanda joined the WAIFC in 2020 and has established partnerships with financial centers in Casablanca, Qatar, Belgium, Luxembourg and Jersey. It became the third African country to join the alliance after Casablanca Finance City and EDB Mauritius.

RFL is a company promoting and developing Rwanda as a leading financial destination for international investment and cross-border transactions in Africa.

It works with key stakeholders to develop and promote Kigali International Financial Centre through investment promotion, policy advocacy and sector upskilling. It also works to establish the regulatory framework for Kigali International Financial Centre to become a leading international financial center.

In 2020, Nick Barigye, the CEO of Rwanda Finance was named Board Member of WAIFC.

In November 2021, the Kigali International Financial Centre announced the establishment of the US$250 million Virunga Africa Fund I which will invest in vital sectors that will drive economic and social transformation across the African continent.

The Fund will have its Head Office in Kigali and will be domiciled in the Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC).

The two anchor investors of the Virunga Africa Fund I are the Qatar Investment Authority (‘QIA’) and Rwanda Social Security Board (‘RSSB’). The Fund is managed by Admaius, an independent investing firm comprising one of the most experienced pan-African investment teams working on the ground.

The Kigali International Financial Centre recently made its debut on the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), a renowned ranking on the competitiveness of financial centers across the world.

In the ranking, Kigali featured as 5th on the continent after Casablanca, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Mauritius and ahead of Nairobi and Lagos.

Despite being a new and emerging financial centre, Kigali was 9th in the Middle Eastern and African Centres.

Kigali International Financial Centre was also mentioned among the top centres likely to become more significant going forward as well as among centres enjoying reputational advantage.