East African Business Week

KIGALI, RWANDA - The value of new investments in Rwanda fell about a third in the first three months of 2011, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said recently.  
Between January and March 2011, investments shrank to US$87m from $125.7m in the same period last year, the Board's first quarter report shows.  This represents 15.8% of the $550m target for this year.
RDB adds that Rwanda registered $381 million investments last year because of attractive investment climate. The World Bank has praised Rwanda for investor-friendly environment especially in the area of registering a business.
RDB says that currently, an investor can register a business in one day and it can be done off-line or online.
Rwanda defines an investor as anyone who spends at least $100,000 in an economic activity.
The Chief Executive Officer of RDB, Mr. John Gara, blamed quarterly activities for the slump.
 "One quarter can be a boom for us and another quarter may be slow and it also depends on certain investment promotional activities," Mr Gara explained recently in Kigali.
Gara's Board is a public entity charged with mobilising and facilitating investors to start businesses in Rwanda.
Sometimes, RDB says that investment promotions can be done in certain venues and fail to attract any investor appetite.
Gara, however, said that investments in April only had shot up reaching $195,979,899. This includes $65m investment in a new drug factory and re-investments in agriculture, he said. Unlike investment value, new projects in the first quarter 2011 recorded a 50% growth reaching 30 compared to 20 projects in 2010.
The new projects are expected to create 1417 jobs, investment Board said.
However, loss of investment value is expected to shake the government's plan to create 1.5 million new jobs needed to cut unemployment by a half in seven years.
Currently, more than 424,000 Rwandans are unemployed majority of them being the youth and women. This represents 8% of 5.3m Rwandans eligible for work.
RDB said local investors claimed the lead with 21 projects out of 30 projects. Foreign investors registered seven projects while the remaining two have a nature of joint ventures.
"We're pleased to see more and more local investors taking a strong role in our investment portfolio," Mr. Gara said.
Unlike real estate, which claimed the lead in the first quarter 2010 in terms of attracting more investments, during the same period this year, accommodation and food services garnered most investments.
Mr Gara said that accommodation and food service activities attracted Rf20.3 billion out of Rf52 billion($87m).
This could be a direct response from the booming local tourism sector, according to Mr. Gara.
"It's something to do with the perception on Rwanda as an increasingly attractive place for tourism."