Rwanda

Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a 26,338km² landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It has a population of 14.2 million and a GDP of US$14.3bn. Rwanda’s economy grew strongly in the first half of 2024, with real GDP increasing 9.7%, after growing at an average of 8.2% in 2022 and 2023. GDP growth is expected to maintain momentum, with a projected average of 7.7% in 2025 and 2026, thanks to a recovery in global tourism, new construction projects, and manufacturing activities.
Rwanda has committed to achieving a debt-to-GDP ratio of 65% by 2031. The current account deficit is projected to rise slightly to 10.9% of GDP in 2024 before narrowing to 10.7% in 2025 as capital imports decline, conference tourism receipts recover, and remittances increase.

Since the 1994 genocide, in which over 1 million people were killed, the country has been ruled by the Rwanda Patriotic Front under the controversial President Paul Kagame. Rwanda has been accused of supporting M23 rebels, an ethnic Tutsi group, who have made significant advances in the mineral-rich east of the DRC bordering Rwanda and are accused of war crimes.

Rwanda has unexploited deposits of diamonds, rare earth elements, cobalt, iron ore and lithium, while tantalum and niobium minerals, tin, tungsten, gold and gemstones are produced. Privately-owned companies, artisanal mining cooperatives, and individual artisanal miners produce tin, tantalum and niobium minerals and tungsten, while gemstones produced by artisanal miners include amethyst, sapphire and tourmaline. Rwanda is the continent’s largest tungsten producer, third-largest tantalum and niobium minerals producer and third-largest tin producer. The establishment of the Kigali Logistics Platform, a 12,000m² container yard and a 19,600m² warehousing facility, connecting Rwanda, Uganda, the DRC and Burundi to the seaports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa was approved in March 2024.

Rwanda aspires to middle income country status by 2035 and high-income country status by 2050 through its National Strategies for Transformation, underpinned by sectoral strategies focused on meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.


Sources: Who Owns Whom sector reports, CIA Factbook, African Development Bank, World Bank, Trading Economics, African Statistical Yearbook and IMF. ?>