Lessons for South Africa Rwanda

Despite being one of the poorest countries in Africa, and even in the world, the growth and positive drive of Rwanda is awesomely inspiring.

Marred by the horrific of genocide of 1994, Rwandans refer to events or milestones as either pre or post genocide. But almost 30years later the country is on a positive trajectory towards greater growth

Located in the central region of Africa, Rwanda is a landlocked country with the most breathtaking mountainous scenery. It is extremely popular with tourists for its mountain gorillas. Tourists travel to spend time in the mountains with these magnificent creatures Bucket-list stuff

In less than 30 years since their tragic genocide past, Rwanda has been able to realign on to a growth trajectory that is currently seeing an 8% consistent GDP growth (obviously slowed during Covid).

One of the things that stands out about Rwanda is how incredibly clean the country is There are regular cleanup drives that are advocated by the presidency, and in which he actually participates Rwandans pride themselves in their cleanliness

The other thing they are extremely proud about is their coffee Coffee aficionados can attest to the remarkable quality of the Rwandan coffee beans.

Rwanda’s parliament has the largest majority of women of any other parliaments globally. In addition to that the average age of the ministers that form the president’s cabinet is 47 There are clear measurables for these leaders and if they are unable to meet the standard they are out Corruption is absolutely not tolerated

Rwanda’s leaders are highly educated, and many are graduates from prestigious universities around the world. They are tech savvy and ambitious and have progressive plans in place

Of course, the country is found wanting in resources, which South Africa is abundant in. But this does not detract them from staying their path to growth and development It is a poor country, many of the farming that is done in Rwanda is subsistence farming.

There isn’t much land to produce agriculture on the kind of scale that other countries do. This is why Rwanda is trying to diversify its options. Rwanda sustains 90% of its budget, as it believes that foreign aid comes with too many conditions.

Rwanda believes in investing in its people, on its terms It has hand-picked leaders that it believes best drive this agenda forward.

There are many lessons for South Africa to learn from this small yet dynamic country.

It's focus on ensuring there are younger leaders, is probably one of the key factors fast-tracking the country's growth.

The effort that is put into the environmental health of the country is paramount and this ha sin turn become a huge attraction for tourists Rwanda has much natural beauty, as does South Africa - and tourists are keen on travelling there because of the safety factor Imagine what South Africa could achieve if we took a few lessons and used the plethora of resources we have access to.