Over the past few years, the African country of Rwanda has made a conscious effort to become one of the key financial hubs in the region, and it seems that its plans are finally taking shape. It has emerged that the Rwandan Government’s highly ambitious projects, Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC) is on the verge being completed, and it is believed that the KIFC is going to be the pivot around which the country wants to emerge as a financial hub. Rwanda Finance Ltd was incorporated by the government to oversee the operations of KIFC, and a CEO position was also established.
The project is a highly ambitious one and was flagged off by the government back in 2017. The aim is to make Rwanda a country that can become one of the more important financial service providers for both local and overseas clients. The KIFC is going to be formed of stock exchanges, hedge funds, banks, and wealth managers. At this point, cities like London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York are regarded as some of the biggest financial hubs in the world.
One of the reasons why those cities became financial hubs was down to the fact that the local governments were extremely receptive to foreign investment and instituted a highly liberal investment climate. While the creation of the KIFC is a huge step, the Rwandan regulators would also need to ensure that investors are made to feel welcome. The current chief executive of Rwanda Stock Exchange, Celestin Rwabukumba, spoke about the developments. He said,
The benefits to us as an economy are funds domiciliation and all professional services that come with it (offshore banking, global custodians, trust businesses, fund management.
