The hidden foundation of transformation: trust, accountability and execution
Some leaders talk about transformation. Others explain how it actually happens. When I sat down with Hortense Mudenge, CEO of Kigali IFC, on the eve of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, I heard a perspective that cut through much of the noise surrounding growth, investment and development. Her argument was simple: capital follows trust, and trust is built through institutions.
Conditions that create confidence
Our conversation explored how Kigali IFC has helped rewrite the way investment flows into and within Rwanda. It has been a multi-pronged effort: changing perceptions of the country, embedding visionary leadership, strengthening institutions, and focusing relentlessly on the foundations required for long-term transformation. In many ways, Kigali IFC’s story is not just about attracting capital. It is about creating the conditions that give investors the confidence to deploy it.
The key, it argues, will be “…private sector investment to enhance productivity growth, raise incomes, and provide the financing to address infrastructure shortfalls.”
Rwanda has set the bar high. It aspires to become a Middle-Income Country by 2035 and a High-Income Country by 2050. There are barriers to overcome. The World Bank laid it on the line stating: “High levels of public debt (projected to rise to over 77% of GDP by end-2026), vulnerability to climate change, and increasing pressure on natural resources will make it difficult to achieve the country’s targets…” The key, it argues, will be “…private sector investment to enhance productivity growth, raise incomes, and provide the financing to address infrastructure shortfalls.”
Ambassadorial role
This is where Kigali IFC has come in since its creation in 2020. As Hortense explains: “…our role is basically to coordinate the whole ecosystem to ensure that Rwanda is a competitive, financial jurisdiction for investors looking to more efficiently deploy capital not just in Rwanda but across the continent”.
This has involved a huge ambassadorial push – especially as Nairobi has been dominant in the region for decades. Some of the work has been countering negative – and lazy – tropes that have dogged Rwanda, and indeed the whole continent, for centuries. Hortense explains that simply getting investors to come to Kigali is often enough to change this. The country has worked to create infrastructure and institutions, including Kigali IFC, which will support growth. This has meant looking at what the barriers are to investing and working to eliminate them; ensuring that regulation is in place to bolster confidence and that there is ease from start to finish. With all of this in place, you can attract and foster innovation and investment.
“Leadership is the relentless pursuit of truth and ceaseless creation of trust.”
Kigali, in this respect, has become a “proof of concept hub” – a city in which the leadership created a blueprint for the future and then pushed hard to make it happen. It is now a city where investors can do the same – come and test their plans before they deploy across the continent.
Trust, accountability and shared ownership have been absolutely central to this. As Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, is quoted as saying: “Leadership is the relentless pursuit of truth and ceaseless creation of trust.” Hortense explains that Kigali IFC will monitor annually, bi-annually and quarterly to ensure that everyone and everything is contributing towards the national strategy for transformation.
She adds that this goes from the very top of government down into every level of every institution. She told me: “…when it comes to an institutional level, then we build the processes and systems that ensures this. You are aligned with what the policies say, but also internally [you ensure] that there are clear values that you integrate to be able to execute on.”
Shared ownership
This is also when shared ownership kicks in. Everyone is on the same page, which makes it easy to sell this vision to investors. This is especially important in times of rapid iteration. Hortense talked to me about the nation’s Fintech ambitions but also how technology is key to every area of growth, including the green asset classes that have been a feature of Rwanda’s plans for decades.
And there are also constant geopolitical shifts to understand and react to. Rwanda, like all nations, needs to build its resilience to withstand the storm that is still rumbling. Pan-Africanism was presented as life boat at the Africa CEO Forum and moves to make it happen in a meaningful way have dominated my newsfeed since my return.
Rwanda, like all nations, needs to build its resilience to withstand the storm that is still rumbling.
A connected, continental financial services industry will be central to this. Rwanda, and specifically the Kigali IFC, will play a pivotal role in facilitating this. As Hortense told me, the country is not growing in isolation – the ambition for African institutional capital to be able to move seamlessly across the continent is key to the Kigali IFC’s vision. However, every nation in Africa must play a part and many have huge hurdles to overcome – perception of their failings – being just one. Rwanda’s trajectory delivers hope, not least as testament to what can happen if a nation gets behind a national agenda.
