KIGALI, RWANDA- Rwanda has moved to interest Equity Bank and other Kenyan investors.

The country is banking on business reforms carried out lately and incredible economic growth of 11.2% registered last year to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).

The delegation met with Equity Bank Group, KenCall, The Tribe Hotel, Nation Media Group, Access Kenya, Sasini, Trust Bank and  Lake Kivu 40(LK40).

Most of these firms had already expressed interests to set their base in Kigali but the process was delaying and the Rwandan officials wanted to remind them that  the door was still open despite the biting global recession.  

Equity Bank Group Managing Director and CEO, Dr. James Mwangi had met Rwanda’s leader Mr. Paul Kagame, and Finance Minister early this year to discuss prospects of investing in Rwanda.  

The Group which extended its base to Uganda after acquiring Uganda’s Microfinance Limited (UML) in 2008, is aggressively considering more opportunities.

Kencall, Kenya’s largest outsourcing company, with established state of the art call centre, is also interested in penetrating the Rwandan market with call centre business outsourcing services. It would be the second after Rwandatel to open a call centre for business outsourcing.

The Nation Media Group early this year also met President Kagame with a message that it was time to invest in Rwanda’s nascent media industry; first with a television and then with other media channels.

 The group’s investments would balance the state of the media in the country and promote the missing and much needed diversity in TV news and competition in the industry.

 “For all these ones, we hope that by next year, they will have invested here because they are serious,” Clare Akamanzi, the Deputy CEO for Services and Operations at RDB told East African Business Week. She said The Tribe Hotel was interested in setting up a hotel in Rwanda while internet services provider, Access, was also eager to provide services in Rwanda. Trust Diamond Bank, Sasini and LK40 also have a wish to be in Kigali but have no timeframe.  

Akamanzi said that on average, Rwanda registers  20 inventors from Kenya on annual basis and the number is increasing.

Some prominent investors from Kenya that are currently in Rwanda include Nakumatt Supermarket chain, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), and stockbrokers at the Rwanda Over the Counter (OTC) market.

Despite Kenyan investors flocking Rwanda, there are not known Rwandan investors that are seeking investment opportunities in Kenya or in the region.

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) says that registered operational Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) had increased six times from Rwf66.8 billion ($118.2 million) in 2005 to Rwf400 billion ($707.9 million) in 2008.

According to the region of origin of FDI in 2008, almost 95% of the volume of operational investment was from Africa and Asia, 3.3% from North America and 1.6% from the European Union.