Rwanda aims to increase foreign direct investment in 2015 to $1.2 billion, a fourfold jump from two years ago, helped by a new investment Code that offers tax breaks and other incentives, officials said on Thursday.
“This year we aim to achieve $1.2 billion worth of private investment into the economy and to grow that annually by 20 per cent. That’s an ambitious target we’ve given ourselves based on the broader objectives of our economic growth ambitions,” Francis Gatare, chief executive of the state’s Rwanda Development Board, told a meeting of local businesspeople.
Vivian Kayitesi, the head of Investment Promotion and Implementation at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), said Rwanda has managed to attract foreign direct investments with a bigger value.
Rwanda Development Board (RDB) created online platforms to further ease doing business in the country, including the business registration online platform, property and mortgage registration as well as the construction permit application.
The country published a new investment code in the official gazette in May, outlining incentives that included a seven-year corporate tax holiday to firms investing at least $50 million, of which 30 percent was equity in strategic sectors.
The sectors included manufacturing, tourism, health, information technology, other export-oriented industry and energy projects with capacity of at least 25 megawatts (MW).
The public entity also pledged commitment towards attracting investment in other sectors such as in financial services, logistics, as well as in light weight manufacturing and assembling.
World Bank rankings show Rwanda is one of the easiest places to do business in Africa, after Mauritius and South Africa, but the country has struggled to meet past investment targets.