{"id":11362,"date":"2009-11-02T17:25:17","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T17:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/?p=11362"},"modified":"2017-07-28T17:28:58","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T17:28:58","slug":"president-kagame-calls-on-investors-to-tap-into-africas-great-opportunities-london-2-november-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=11362","title":{"rendered":"President Kagame calls on investors to tap into Africa\u2019s great opportunities – London, 2 November 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Kagame speaks of Rwanda\u2019s commitment to creating a pro-business environment.President Kagame today delivered the keynote speech at the \u2018Private Equity in Africa Summit\u2019 held at the London Stock Exchange. Speaking to over 125 representatives of the largest Private Equity Funds in Africa, major Hedge Funds, Investment Banks and Sovereign Wealth Funds, President Kagame said that in recent years, Africa had achieved real progress in all areas, particularly in economic growth, and pointed out that those who still hold incorrect perceptions of Africa and Rwanda are missing great opportunities.<\/p>\n

Noting Rwanda\u2019s recent recognition as the world\u2019s fastest reformer by the World Bank\u2019s Doing Business Index, President Kagame said that Rwanda has worked to overcome the barriers to investment, reform institutions and regulations, and has welcomed investment in key sectors such as telecommunications and banking. Speaking on Rwanda\u2019s development vision that is centered on building a knowledge-based economy\u00a0 and economic transformation towards high-value products, President Kagame highlighted Rwanda\u2019s commitment to regional integration, as well as support of efforts to build a larger market of consumers by merging the East African Community with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).<\/p>\n

On the advantages of investing in Africa, President Kagame said that the continent was experiencing exponential growth particularly in infrastructure and energy, and held attractive prospects in ICT, agri-business, mining, real estate and construction. He pointed out that these opportunities should be viewed solely as a contribution to social development, but in light of \u201c\u2026the growing market potential of the African population, which by the end of this year will see Africa join India and China in surpassing one billion people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the importance of private equity in shaping the future of the African continent, President Kagame told the audience that as private investors looking for innovative investment opportunities and healthy returns, they represented ideal partners for Africa\u2019s pursuit of \u201ca continent that is prosperous, economically and politically interconnected, internationally respected continent, that is in charge of its own destiny\u201d.<\/p>\n

President Kagame told the audience of Rwanda\u2019s determination to ensure a favourable business climate, strong political leadership and institutional support, and called on investors to consider the continent\u2019s unique opportunity for growth as they would any potentially profitable undertaking.<\/p>\n

President Kagame is expected to hold meetings with UK government officials and business leaders on Tuesday before ending his working visit to London.<\/p>\n

President Kagame is scheduled to arrive in Egypt on Wednesday to begin a four-day official visit to the North African country at the invitation of President Hosni Mubarak. Following the official visit, President Kagame is expected to address the China-Africa Forum to be held in Sharm El Sheikh, in his capacity as Chair of the EAC Summit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Kagame speaks of Rwanda\u2019s commitment to creating a pro-business environment.President Kagame today delivered the keynote speech at the \u2018Private Equity in Africa Summit\u2019 held at the London Stock Exchange. Speaking to over 125 representatives of the largest Private Equity Funds in Africa, major Hedge Funds, Investment Banks and Sovereign Wealth Funds, President Kagame said that in recent years, Africa had achieved real progress in all areas, particularly in economic growth, and pointed out that those who still hold incorrect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11364,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362\/revisions\/11364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}