Kigali transits from sleepy town to Africa’s Singapore

A lot of progress

“We’ve made a lot of progress,” he said, referring to Rwanda’s economy. “If we keep this trend we might not reach Singapore in the next 10 years but in the sub-region definitely we’ll improve,” he told AFP while overseeing work on a residential construction site.

“Rwanda is still at a disadvantage in terms of human capacity and education,” and small companies still find it hard to access credit, he said.

The country has registered 7.1 percent average GDP growth since 2004 and was chosen “fastest global reformer of business regulations” by the World Bank Doing Business Survey.

Administrative changes and four major commercial laws in 2009 have made it easier to start a business, employ workers, register property and access credit, the RDB says.

Modern housing is in short supply, so the time to obtain a construction permit has been sharply reduced.

Skyline aside, Kigali is trying to develop on the high-tech front.

For Leon Orsmond, who runs Osmosis, a viral marketing company with offices in Dubai, Lagos and ...Kigali, Rwanda’s recent history, rather than being a handicap, has proved almost a catalyst.

“Because of 1994 they’ve had to play fast catch up. They’ve had to leapfrog. They’ve had to accept that from an agrarian economy they’ve got to move to a knowledge-based one,” he said.

Sixteen years ago Kigali was yet to emerge from the trauma of the genocide of the Tutsi, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed in three months.

Among the rare physical reminders today are the memorial museum, and the bullet-pocked walls of the parliament building, kept that way on purpose.

Kigali is already famous for having banned plastic bags and the environment remains a major redevelopment consideration.

The current industrial zone, Gikondo, will be returned to wetlands and a new industrial park on the outskirts is scheduled for completion by year end.

Officials say those on modest wages will not be forgotten.