Blue, yellow, green: As night falls, the dome of the Kigali Convention Center lights up, resplendent in the colors of Rwanda’s national flag, as the country aims to attract all eyes on the capital and beyond.
In less than a decade, the small, landlocked nation has established itself as a destination for conferences, sports tournaments and other events, billing itself as “Africa’s Singapore” to boost the economy.
“Rwanda is one of the most stable countries in East Africa... People feel comfortable and safe when they come to these kinds of meetings,” Senegalese agricultural expert Ghislain Kanfany told Agence France-Presse as he arrived for a conference of African plant producers.
Photo: Reuters
Although rights groups regularly accuse the administration of Rwandan President Paul Kagame of crushing dissent and keeping an iron grip on power, Kigali’s clean, well-paved streets and modern infrastructure make a positive first impression on many visitors.
Organizers say that low levels of bureaucracy and effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic also make it easier to hold large-scale events in the country.
“There is not much red tape,” said Kuben Pillay, a South African official at the International Cricket Council who was in town for a qualifying tournament.
Prior to the pandemic, conference revenue had jumped nearly 40 percent between 2016 and 2019, Rwandan government figures showed.
Kigali was second only to Cape Town in terms of the number of events hosted in Africa, the International Conferences and Conventions Association said.
The mushrooming of new infrastructure over the past six years — including the convention center, whose dome is inspired by Rwanda’s beehive-shaped palaces, the Gahanga Cricket Stadium, or the 10,000-seater Kigali Arena, East Africa’s biggest indoor venue — has helped develop the nascent sector.
Hotel owners have also sensed an opportunity, with major international chains setting up shop next to the convention center.
The authorities are pumping in funds to expand national airline RwandAir and build a new international airport on the outskirts of the capital.
“The government of Rwanda has [put] a lot of effort into making sure people can feel safe having their event” in the country, said Janet Karemera, deputy director of the Rwanda Convention Bureau, the public agency promoting the sector.
However, the success of the fast-growing sector has raised concerns among rights advocates, who have accused Rwandan authorities of rounding up street vendors, homeless people and sex workers ahead of high-profile events such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
“Rwanda’s strategy to promote Kigali as a hub for meetings and conferences often means continued abuse of the capital’s poorest and most marginalized residents,” Human Rights Watch Central Africa director Lewis Mudge said in September last year after the Commonwealth meeting was rescheduled due to the pandemic.
“Rwanda’s Commonwealth partners have a choice: either speak up for the rights of the victims or be silent as the crackdown is carried out in their name,” he said.
Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said the claims were “fabricated reports ... specifically calculated to harm a strategic sector of our economy.”
With the promise of bringing in foreign exchange, authorities hope the sector will offer an economic boost to the landlocked nation, which relies on expensive imports.
Heavy investment in infrastructure has contributed to Rwanda’s debt, up from 15 percent of GDP in 2010 to nearly 54 percent in 2019, a report by the French Development Agency showed last year.
Conversely, conference revenue remains low for the time being — about 1 percent of GDP.
However, the government is counting on a “domino effect” to yield dividends, Karemera said.
Trevor Ward, managing director of Nigeria-based consulting firm W Hospitality Group, said the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry brings many direct and indirect economic benefits.
“The obvious one is job creation, then you got the linkages to support industries: catering, audiovisual, drivers, cleaners, flowers, etcetera,” he said.
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