This week’s announcement that $1.2 billion dollars worth of investments have been achieved between January and June is a great leap in the country’s development journey. Especially considering that the entire year’s investment projection was $1.3 billion.What makes the development even more heartening is the fact that domestic investors are leading the way, representing $509.1 million. Foreign investments are worth $406.9 million and joint ventures are worth $338.1 million, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) figures.  What that means is that more and more Rwandans are entering the private sector therefore increasing employment, tax receipts and decreased capital flight.RDB also announced that 88 per cent of projects had at least reached the implementation phase, while 48 per cent had already become operational. As a country our goal is to finance our own development and move away from foreign aid, which is often used as a tool to manipulate and control developing nations. This cannot become a possibility unless we are able to fund our own national budget. Today, we are able to fund 60 per cent of it from our taxes but that isn’t enough. Our goal must be to fund 100 per cent of our national budget. Foreign and domestic investment is the clear growth path  to our development goals.