{Over the last 10 years, Rwanda has undertaken serious economic reforms
that have made it climb doing business rankings. A recent report by
Heritage Foundation ranked Rwanda the fourth economically free country
in Africa after Mauritius, Botswana, and Cape Verde.}
Rwanda’s overall economic freedom score stands at 64.7 per cent,
making its economy the 65th most free in the world. The report pointed
out that over the 20-year history of the Index, Rwanda has improved
its economic freedom score by 26.4 points, the fifth-best increase of
any country.
The Minister of Finance and Economic planning Claver Gatete,
attributed Rwanda’s tremendous progress to the wider process of
economic liberalisation which allows everyone to operate any business
freely.
“We have made it easy for people to do business in Rwanda through
creation of investment freedom, and fiscal freedom where we simplified
the taxation policies by encouraging the use of electronic means to
pay taxes,” Minister Gatete said.
Commenting on the report, the Minister of Commerce and Trade Francois
Kanimba mentioned the importance of proper planning and visionary
leadership as well as increasingly regional integration.
“Our internal economic governance as well as entry into regional
economic initiatives like trade partnerships with our neighbours has
increased our performance in terms of economic freedom,” said Minister
Kanimba, adding that “several financial facilities like easy access to
loans have unlocked a number of potentials within the economic
sector.”
The report reads that Rwanda scored 0.6 point better than last year,
reflecting improvements in the management of government spending,
business freedom, and labour freedom. Rwanda is ranked 4th out of 46
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and its score exceeds the world
average.
Recording score improvements in nine out of the 10 economic freedoms,
Rwanda has advanced from economic repression 20 years ago to a
“moderately free” economy today, it says.
Within the East African Community, Uganda was next to Rwanda with a
score of 59.9, making it the 91st freest economy in the world and 10th
in the Sub-Saharan region. Tanzania and Kenya are the 15th and 17th in
the Sub-Saharan region, while Burundi is ranked 31st and comes last in
the EAC.
Nonetheless, substantial challenges remain, according to the report,
particularly in implementing deeper institutional and systemic reforms
that are critical to strengthening the foundations of economic
freedom.
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