IFC Global Trade Finance Program Expands to Rwanda

*BCR becomes the first beneficiary
* Boosting International Trade Prospects for Local Businesses

The International Financing Cooperation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced on Thursday Novermber 29, that Banque Commerciale du Rwanda (BCR) is the first bank in Rwanda to join IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program.
According to a press release issued by the World Bank office in Kigali, IFC will issue guarantees of up to $2 million against the bank’s underlying trade transactions, covering payment risk and helping increase Rwanda’s global trade volumes.
The release notes that the transaction is IFC’s third in Rwanda in less than a year, reflecting a commitment to increasing activities that support the country’s sustainable economic growth.
IFC is focusing on mobilizing investments and providing advisory services in key sectors for maximum development impact, including financial markets, tourism, agribusiness, infrastructure, and construction.
“Working with IFC will greatly increase our capacity to facilitate trade between Rwanda and other countries, promoting the private sector and contributing more to economic development,” said David Kuwana, Managing Director of BCR. “We see this as a first step in a collaborative partnership with IFC.”
The IFC Global Trade Finance Program was launched in 2005 to support trade with emerging markets worldwide and promote flows of goods and services between developing countries. IFC provides guarantee coverage of bank risk in emerging markets, allowing recipients to expand their trade finance transactions within an extensive network of countries and banks and to enhance their trade finance coverage.
“Trade finance is part of IFC’s strategy to help Africa become fully engaged in global trade,” said IFC Executive Vice President and CEO Lars Thunell (Above), who signed the agreement during a two-day visit to Rwanda. “I look forward to working with BCR to create opportunities for economic growth.”
To date, the IFC Global Trade Finance Program has provided about $1.5 billion worth of guarantees to issuing banks in developing countries. The program has supported $2.2 billion in trade globally since 2005, of which $1.2 billion was trade involving a Sub-Saharan African nation. The program includes 29 issuing banks as participants in 15 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including such conflict-affected countries as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In conjunction with Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA), Lars addressed a press conference on FRIDAY November 30. Lars visit is to discuss with the Government of Rwanda and The private Sector, IFC activities and how best IFC can help Rwanda achieve its development objectives.

Democracy will never work in a third world country

Recalling our African history and Ugandan national motto that "For God and my country", I think it’s either now or never that we accept the fact.

Democracy as we define it right away from Primary school assumes one principle that cannot be left out; ALL PEOPLE OF A COMMUNITY/COUNTRY/STATE/PROVINCE HAVE A PERFECT UNDERSTANDING OF THE POLITICS AND ECONOMY OF THE AREA.

Well, in the developed world, majority will cast their vote based on reason or at least basing on inherited love for a particular political party which their predecessors supported or founded and this approximates the assumption underlying democracy.

Just a reminder, the democracy we are talking about today is more American than Greek! Americans formulated their Democratic Principles after discontent with the British way of doing things, but all the same the two societies are the exact mirror reflections of the African societies of the Third world like in Uganda and many other African countries.

Sincerely, at times people say that intellectuals tend to under look other people and they said that when professor Kanyeihamba one time implied that peasants' votes should not carry the same weight as those of their educated sons and daughters. I strongly agree with the learned justice's implications because in third world countries like my motherland, the illiteracy levels are still very low and it actually makes no sense for me to go and cast my vote to any African leader basing on the a better expression of ideas in a certain party manifesto ahead of any opposition contestant and yet another country votes for that leader also basing on the fact that the said leader's agent has sponsored him a waragi bottle.

Some times it is hard to admit the truth except if it has marks on our body like signs of AIDS or disability, but we need to contemplate and accept that provided that our society is still like that then the concept of Democracy shall never work here and therefore trying to imitate the maturity in multiparty politics of the Unites States is a mere DREAM! The Ugandan President M7 for instance has always communicated this clearly and still some people seem to have failed to get his point right. Ok if you are one of them, here it is; A society needs a revolutionary and visionary leader who should be given the chance to steer the country through a period of continued development and transformation and lead it to TAKE-OFF stage and then you can start talking about Democracy and multi-partyism.

Ofcourse, someone like Dr Kiiza Besigye of Uganda or Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, will never come to admit the fact that revolutionary leaders like M7, Rober Mugabe or Paul Kagame are not just average men/ boys that they watched grow! Leaders like M7 and many great leaders of this world is a wise man and a great reader and that is what makes one a great leader!!!! M7, Kagame and Mugabe have read widely about dictatorial regimes, transformation of countries in far East Asia and believe me such leaders have mastered African society.

For instance M7 has maintained strategic flexibility despite harboring his own ideology (movement democracy) and will always swing around a 'multi-party' democracy which never is!

To drive the point home, I have this to say "For the West to promote Multi Party Democracy in low developed Africa; it is re-inventing the wheel i.e. pre-independence civil wars and slave trade." The argument here is not against multiparty democracy, but just like the formulas in mathematics, it’s not universally applicable and thus third world is among the EXCEPTIONS.

You will agree with me that it takes courage to agree to this and admit that if we are to take off, then we need to leave revolutionary leaders like M7, Kagame, Col. Umar Gadafi of Libya and Mugabe to steer the continent to greater heights for they have a ‘vision’ and then think of true democracy.

African Diaspora key to the continent’s development

*WB meets with Diaspora groups to discuss increased engagement, cooperation
African Diaspora defined as peoples of African descent/origin living outside the continent play an increasingly important role in the continent’s development, both through the financial resources they send back to their home countries and through their professional expertise. According to a 2005 World Bank report, remittances flows from the African Diaspora are in excess of $4-6 billion per year and a significant number of professionals from the continent are currently living outside of Africa.
In order to engage with these groups and support the African Union’s ongoing effort to work with the African Diaspora, the World Bank on Thursday November 29, held an African Diaspora Open House in Washington with over 200 representatives from groups based in the United States and Canada to discuss opportunities for closer collaboration.
Among other initiatives, the World Bank announced that it will collaborate with the African Union in exploring the possibilities for the development of a Diaspora Remittances Investment Fund, which will be based on global experiences that exploit the benefits of and leverage remittances to finance Diaspora-led development activities, in a manner similar to existing mechanisms in Latin America.
The World Bank is also exploring multiple approaches for working with the African Diaspora, including through:
• Engagement of the Diaspora—in collaboration with African member countries— in the design and implementation of the ongoing portfolio of World Bank-assisted projects (338 projects for about $22 billion), and in the planned pipeline of proposed new World Bank-assisted projects over the FY08 - FY10 period (estimated at 248 projects for about $13 billion)
• Partnerships with private sector organizations, notably multi-national corporations with strong business interests in Africa;
• Support for Diaspora to build on ongoing efforts through a blended strategy of "virtual" participation; short, medium and long term placements; return and retention; and institutional networks;
• Dialogue with donors to contribute to a proposed African Diaspora Engagement and Facilitation Fund to support program activities;
• Facilitation of policy-relevant networks on topical issues such as sub/regional integrated infrastructure, energy, transportation, and research on diverse topics;
• Support to African governments in creating the enabling policy and institutional environment to harness Diaspora potential; strengthening Africa’s response to globalization, among others.
"The World Bank is in a very strategic position to assist in the mobilization of the African Diaspora in support of economic development on the ground in Africa” says Melvin P. Foote, President of the Constituency for Africa (CFA) a 16 year-old Washington, D.C. based network of organizations, groups and individuals committed to the progress and empowerment of Africa and African people worldwide. “Engaging the Diaspora in providing technical assistance in Africa may well create the necessary synergy to transform how development will be pursued on the continent in the future”.
More than a third of Africa’s highly qualified human resources are presently in the Diaspora. Studies show that the most educated Africans increasingly opt not to return to the continent and stay in their host country after completion of their studies. A survey of African PhD students in the U.S. and Canada in 1986-96 showed that about 44 per cent decided to stay. The impact of the non-return has been debilitating on Africa’s public and private sector, in some cases forcing countries to rely on high rates of international consultants to tackle development work. A partnership with the African Diaspora for the continent’s development is thus essential to enable Africa to increase its capacity to use and apply knowledge and increase its access to financial resources.
With support from African governments, the World Bank hopes to use its engagement with the African Diaspora to strengthen the performance of its extensive portfolio of investment and development policy loans in the region (about US$22 billion) by better engaging the African Diaspora with government support, in the over US$6 billion of technical assistance which is financed by this portfolio.