President Paul Kagame yesterday met with a dozen of Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania MBA Alumni, faculty members and business leaders at Village Urugwiro in Kigali.

For the last five years, different groups of students from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania have visited Rwanda with the aim to know Rwanda better and strengthen existing partnerships.

Speaking to journalists shortly after meeting President Kagame, the vice-dean of Wharton School Social Impact Initiative, Katherine J. Klein, said the discussion focused on exchanging ideas for further collaboration.

"What I can say is that our group has been very impressed by the progress we’ve seen in Rwanda and inspired by the kind of change this country has undergone in the last 22 years,” Klein said.

She added, "We are hopeful that in the future, many people and business leaders around the world would like to find ways to support Rwanda’s continuing growth and the growth of the private sector.”

The recent visits of Wharton Business associates to Rwanda, is as a result of President Kagame’s visit to the school last December, where he met and spoke to faculty and business students. 

Following Kagame’s visit to the school, there was a growing interest to visit Rwanda from some of the faculty members, students and alumni, according to Francis Gatare, the chief executive of Rwandan Development Board (RDB).

"During his visit, President Kagame invited them to come visit our country, to come and see what is taking place here and to work with the leadership of this country to develop a partnership; whether it is with the school or individual alumni, who in their individual capacities are successful professionals—many of them being business owners,” Gatare said.

The team is in the country until July 15 to explore possible collaboration areas, especially in the financial sector—which is the school’s main strength.

While in the country, the group will also meet with senior government officials as well as private sector players.

They are expected to visit Kigali and Nyamata Genocide memorial sites to pay tribute to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, before visiting the Kigali special Economic Zone, among other places.

The Wharton Business School is due to partner with RDB to develop social impact investment strategy that would help strengthen entrepreneurship venture in Rwanda.

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