Investments in Rwanda hit US$4.3bn

The construction sector has the lion’s share of the $4.3 billion worth of investments registered over the last 11 years, a new report from Rwanda Development Board, indicates. According to the report, exclusively availed to The New Times, the investments were realised from a total of 766 local, foreign and joint venture projects.

Monday, August 22, 2011
The Kigali Convention centre is one of the major ongoing construction projects in the country. Construction attracted investments worth over US$900m The New Times/ File Photo

The construction sector has the lion’s share of the $4.3 billion worth of investments registered over the last 11 years, a new report from Rwanda Development Board, indicates.

According to the report, exclusively availed to The New Times, the investments were realised from a total of 766 local, foreign and joint venture projects.

The construction sector alone recorded investments worth US$915 million.

Tourism came second with projects worth US$866 million closely followed by the energy sector at US$792 million.

Other notable sectors include ICT with US$438 million worth of projects, financial sector with US$322 million, agriculture with US $255 million and manufacturing with US$235 million.

According to the report, an average of 110 projects were registered each year, within the last four years and in the last 11 years, each year, projects worth US$396 million were registered.

"Investment commitment value peaked in 2009 approximated at US$1.1 billion, driven mostly by several large transactions, among them, investment brought by Tigo, MTN and Contour Global,” the report states, adding that "the value of registered projects declined significantly in 2010 compared to 2009 due to low value of individual registered projects”.

In the RDB tabulation, the value of registered foreign investment otherwise known as Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) dominated total investments with 55 percent of total value followed with local investments taking up 42 percent of total value and joint ventures with 3 percent.

For additional details on the story, read the Business Times section

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