Rwanda: AFD Group Opens its Doors in Kigali

AFD Group now physically present in Rwanda

On March 31st, Rémy Rioux will inaugurate AFD’s offices in Kigali in the presence of the Honourable Minister of Economic Planning and Finance, Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana and the French Ambassador Mr. Antoine Anfré. This is the concretization of the announcements made during the presidential visit in May 2021. 



The action of AFD Group in Rwanda for 2022-2023 revolves around three pillars, in addition to the crosscutting theme of sport: 

• human capital (health; education and vocational training) ;
• sustainable economic development ;
• local development & access to basic services. 

Since 2019, AFD has committed €218 million in Rwanda. The physical presence of AFD Group in Kigali will enable the Group to further strengthen the ties with its Rwandan partners, as AFD will be allocating €200 million in the next two years, which will add to the funding operated by the French Treasury and the French Embassy. 

The host country agreement which will be signed during the visit will apply to all three entities part of the AFD Group, thus creating a favourable environment for Expertise France - which is already active in the health and education sectors - to develop its activities as well as for Proparco to provide direct funding to companies operating in the country.

Find out more about our action in Rwanda

During his visit, Rémy Rioux will also explore future partnership opportunities in terms of education/vocational training, digital tech and innovation, green finance as well as sport and development, launch the National Plan for the teaching and learning of French with Honourable Dr. Valentine Uwamariya, minister of Education and sign two specific agreements with the BRD and the Ministry of Health.

A partnership agreement will be signed with AFD’s long-standing partner: the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD)

The objective of the partnership agreement is to set down the areas of cooperation between the two public development banks for the next 5 years. They will explore collaboration in terms of green finance as well as new sectors, such as the mainstreaming of gender in their respective activities or sectors that have a high potential in terms of growth and creation of decent jobs (i.e. digital, cultural and creative industries, sports etc.). 

The agreement plans for the concrete fostering of knowledge and peer-to-peer exchanges. The two institutions will explore exchange of staff with a focus on skills transfers and knowledge sharing. 

Finally, AFD will sponsor BRD’s application to the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) a network of 26 national, regional and bilateral development banks that are working together to implement the Sustainable Development Goals & the Paris Agreement Agendas. BRD and AFD will collaborate in the Framework of Finance in Common Summit (FICS), the global forum gathering all public development banks, and strive to keep it a dynamic coalition.

Another MoU is planned to be signed with the Ministry of Health of Rwanda

The objective of this MOU is to set down the areas of cooperation between the Parties. To enhance the Rwanda-French cooperation, the Ministry of Health and AFD Group will in turn commit to further their collaboration in the health sector. Such cooperation should lead towards concrete projects such as the rehabilitation of the Musanze hospital, support to vaccine production, training of health human resources with peer-to-peer exchanges between health facilities and research institutions in France and Rwanda.