To put Rwanda in perspective:
60% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
87.8 percent live on less than $2 a day.
The life expectancy is 44 years old.
5%of the population have access to electricity and 3 % have internet access.
In the genocide of 1994, over 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.
Brief Overview
A small country of about 9 million people, Rwanda is located between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. Rwanda experienced Africa’s worst genocide in the 1990s, in which the two main ethnic tribes (Tutsis and Hutus) came head to head; over 800,000 people were killed and two million fled to neighboring countries.
Rwanda is now rebuilding its economy, with coffee and tea production among its main sources of foreign exchange. Although economic growth has exceeded 5% since 2001, Rwanda is still highly dependent on foreign aid, and nearly two thirds of the population lives below the poverty line. Only 5% of Rwanda’s population has access to electricity and 3% has internet access.
The microfinance sector in Rwanda is still young, but has grown considerably in a short amount of time. There are over 200 MFIs in Rwanda, many of which emerged after the genocide in 1994. Since 2004, the nation has seen the rapid growth of unregistered and unregulated MFIs. Even with this boom of MFIs in Rwanda, both the informal (moneylenders) and formal microfinance sectors are still weak and have only reached about 30% of the estimated demand for microfinance services.
In the past two years, several MFIs ran out of funds and were forced to shut down. The current irregularities in the microfinance industry have forced the government and National Bank of Rwanda to create more stringent norms and standards to strengthen the sector. I am so honored to be here and see, firsthand, the good work of Jeffrey Lee, our CEO and his team at Urwego Bank of Opportunity.
