Rwanda

Although the economy has grown by more than 10% on average in the last decade, more than 50% of the population still lives below the international poverty line. The pandemic has inhibited growth and further increased disparities.

Despite an influx of around 200,000 young adults into the labour market each year, there is a shortage of skilled workers, meaning that vocational training is highly relevant in Rwanda.

On behalf of the German Federal Government, KfW Development Bank therefore supports the qualitative expansion of public and private vocational schools and their training programmes.

KfW is also creating additional jobs through the targeted promotion of export-oriented SMEs. These benefit from needs-based loans and structural crisis support during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will secure jobs and successfully manoeuvre companies through the economic recession.

Project information - sustainable economic development (, -0 KB)

With its economic development and poverty alleviation strategy “Vision 2050”, Rwanda wants to move closer to its goal of being a middle-income country. Key cornerstones for this are the expansion of local infrastructure and good governance. Since 2001, KfW Development Bank has been supporting the Rwandan local development fund LODA on behalf of the German Federal Government, which supports citizen-oriented planning and financing of infrastructure projects at the district level.

In order to increase the efficiency of public administration, Rwanda is striving for increasing digitalisation of processes and institutions. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW is supporting the Rwandan government in improving the central IT system of the LODA development fund. Digitalisation is also to be promoted by an innovative ICT fund managed by the Rwandan information authority RISA.

Rwanda is characterised by a strong will to reform. Since 2008, the government has been driving the development of efficient and transparent public finance. Since 2010, KfW has been working with other development partners to finance the efforts of the Rwandan government through basket funding as a harmonised, holistic approach to reform. Based on the government’s reform plan, this promotes various areas of the budget cycle and key cross-cutting issues such as an integrated financial management information system.

Rwanda is already, and will continue to be, heavily affected by the effects of climate change. The survival of the agricultural sector, which accounts for around a third of GDP, is at risk, and energy production is also subject to increasing uncertainties.

Through the FONERWA national environment and climate change investment fund, KfW finances projects that contribute to strengthening resilience.

Rwanda is more than twice as densely populated as Germany, and urbanisation there is growing rapidly, which presents a major challenge, but also a great opportunity for pioneering infrastructure.

For example, KfW is supporting the Rwandan government in supplying the population with environ-mentally friendly and climate-adapted infrastructure in the “Green City Kigali” (GCK) district. The project is intended to contribute to poverty alleviation, social cohesion and economic development, while at the same time being environmentally and climate-friendly and thus serving as a flagship project.

In the last 10 years, Rwanda has doubled its power generation capacity. What is more, Rwanda has also managed to diversify its power generation in recent years. Nevertheless, after decades of conflicts, the energy supply in Rwanda and the neighbouring countries of Burundi and (eastern) DR Congo is climate-intensive and inconsistent.

German Financial Cooperation is supporting the three states in the planned expansion of regional co-operation in the electricity sector, for example, by financing renewable energies in the form of hydro-power plants on the Ruzizi River, with an energy potential of 500MW, and the associated transmission lines and infrastructure.