Rwanda: open for business?

Per African Alliance Securities, “political risk insurance and trade credit insurance will play a major role in Rwanda’s strategy to become a middle income country by 2020.  Coupled with the country’s aggressive business reforms, this specialty insurance is expected to increase Rwanda’s already impressive FDI and export volumes.”  Said reforms have been robust and the overall operating environment transparent enough that Nairobi-based ATIA, the continent’s only multilateral political-and credit-risk insurer, plans to make Kigali one of three new office destinations in 2011 as it expects to boost premium income between 30-50 percent.  To that end, the World Bank recognized Rwanda last fall as the “second most improved business reformer over the past five years,” while ranking it 58th in its 2011 Doing Business Rankings, an accolade that should bode well if it’s to realize the IMF’s lofty growth projections of 8% annual growth within three years.  As far as share trading, the country’s exchange (RSE) opened Jan. 31 and was christened by the IPO of Heineken’s Rwandan unit known as Bralirwa which generated USD$80m against $29.5m projected for the 25% of government shares that were offered and joined Kenya Commercial Bank and Kenya’s Nation Media Group as the only other listed companies.  Per African Alliance, “currently seven credible regional and local brokers are registered and more are likely to come into the market as RSE gains momentum with more listings both locally and regionally.”  Banque de Kigali, for instance, the country’s largest bank by assets and which would likely be under Barclays’ auspices by now had it not been for Lehman, plans to float a 25 percent stake in an IPO by May or June.  Other impending listing, per analysts, include shares of cement-maker Ciments du Rwanda Ltd, Rwanda Commercial Bank and the government’s sale of its 10 percent stake in mobile operator MTN Rwanda as well as its 20 percent stake in the country’s biggest insurer, Sonarwa (Societe Nouvelle d’Assurance du Rwanda) in which Nigerian firm IGI owns a 35 percent stake.