The world needs to learn from Rwanda’s resilience and perspective, Trond-Morten Lindberg, BDOs CEO for EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) said during his visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial on Tuesday, April 19. “There are ongoing wars and crimes against humanity in several places of the world, hence, we all have to learn how to be resilient, fight and build back, never losing faith, hope in the future because Rwanda has demonstrated that it is possible,” Lindberg said. Along with Chief Executives, Sandeep Khapre of BDO East Africa, Mark Stewart of BDO, Republic of South Africa as well as Emmanuel Habineza, the Managing Partner of BDO EA Rwanda Limited, Lindberg visited the genocide museum and laid wreaths to mass graves of over 250,000 victims laid at the memorial site. “We’re here to understand the story and the legacy of this country. You can read the genocide story which we all did from school, but being here on the ground, hearing the story and having it visualised just makes it tremendously strong,” he noted. Lindberg highlighted the importance of visiting the memorial site noting that it made them understand the history of Rwandans to a greater extent, both from a legacy and a future perspective. “So, it was interesting to learn about Rwanda’s post-genocide development journey but equally sad to be reminded of this horrible history,” he said as he commended Rwanda’s transformation in the past 28 years. “What we are seeing now in Rwanda is a tremendous opportunity coming out of this land! Having a business in Rwanda is very different when you are coming from other parts of the world, you find a unified people being tremendously proud of their story and really hungry to make a change and impact the future,” he observed. After vising the memorial, the BDO top executives paid a courtesy call to its offices here in Rwanda, where they engaged with the BDO EA Rwanda Limited team to discuss the milestones and challenges. BDO is a global auditing firm with a branch in Rwanda, providing different services including audit and business services outsourcing which includes accounting and tax advisory services. BDO EA Rwanda Limited is part of BDO East Africa (BDO EA) which is a centrally managed network of offices across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia with 11 partners and more than 250 professional staff. The regional audit firm is a member firm of BDO International. The firms share resources, methodologies, quality control processes, technology resources and also use their common strengths and insights to service clients in neighbouring countries such as Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, DR Congo, through a network of partner firms.
