Rémy RIOUX, the CEO of French Development Agency (AFD) is in Rwanda for the 4th time since June 2019.
On this occasion, AFD Group will officially unveil its new country offices and sign a number of agreements, including one for allocating €200 million in the next two.
His visit highlights AFD’s contribution to the deepening of the relationship between France and Rwanda following the mutual commitment made by President Paul Kagame and French President Emmanuel Macron to reinforce the cooperation between the two countries in a wide range of sectors.
First, AFD Group now physically present in Rwanda, and will see quick execution of strategic agreements following the presidential visit in May 2021.
AFD’s offices in Kigali has been innaugurated.
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The action of AFD Group in Rwanda for 2022-2023 revolves around three pillars, in addition to the crosscutting theme of sport: human capital (health; education and vocational training; sustainable economic development, local development and access to basic services.
Since 2019, AFD has committed €218 million in Rwanda. The physical presence of AFD Group in Kigali will enable the group to further strengthen the ties with its Rwandan partners, as AFD will be allocating €200 million in the next two years, which will add to the funding operated by the French Treasury and the French Embassy.
Rwanda has agreed to see a successful implementation of the agreement and AFD Group will facilitate the creation of a favourable environment for Expertise France – which is already active in the health and education sectors – to develop its activities as well as for Proparco to provide direct funding to companies operating in the country.
During his visit, Mr. RIOUX is exploring future partnership opportunities in the areas of education/vocational training, digital tech and innovation, green finance as well as sport and development, launch the National Plan for the teaching and learning of French, a deal signed today morning.
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Also, two specific agreements were signed with BRD and the Ministry of Health. And partnership agreement with AFD’s long-standing partner, BRD is part of the deal.
The objective of the partnership agreement is to identify areas of cooperation between the two public development banks for the next 5 years.
They will explore collaboration in terms of green finance as well as new sectors, such as the mainstreaming of gender in their respective activities or sectors that have a high potential for growth and creation of decent jobs (i.e. digital, cultural and creative industries, sports etc.).
The agreement intends to foster knowledge and peer-to-peer exchanges. The two institutions will explore exchange of staff with a focus on skills transfers and knowledge sharing.
Finally, AFD will sponsor BRD’s application to the International Development Finance Club (IDFC), a network of 26 national, regional and bilateral development banks that are working together to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement Agendas.
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BRD and AFD will collaborate in the Framework of Finance in Common Summit (FICS), the global forum gathering all public development banks, and strive to keep it a dynamic coalition.
Another MoU is planned to be signed with the Ministry of Health. The objective of this MOU is to identify areas of cooperation between the two parties.
To enhance the Rwanda-French cooperation, the Ministry of Health and AFD Group will in turn commit to further their collaboration in the health sector.
Such cooperation should lead towards concrete projects such as the rehabilitation of the Musanze hospital, support to vaccine production, training of health human resources with peer-to-peer exchanges between health facilities and research institutions in France and Rwanda.
