MacroScope

A number of African nations have established or are having debates about establishing sovereign wealth funds to manage their mainly resource-based wealth.

It may be surprising however to hear Rwanda — an aid-dependent nation racked by the 1994 genocide — is considering one. Its foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo says a sovereign fund would help develop its economy and ease dependency on aid.

“We should not rely on someone else’s money. It’s about our own dignity. We’re looking at every policy — economic policy and foreign policy — to make sure Rwanda stands on its feet. Technology is one sector we’re looking at in Rwanda and how to use our own innovation,” Mushikiwabo tells Reuters during her visit to our London office.

The landlocked nation has been also looking at the agricultural sector as well as methane gas, of which the country plans to become an exporter in the future.

Mushikiwabo says one plan under discussion is to create a fund that has a size of $2 per working population (Rwanda’s total population is about 10 million). She adds that Rwanda is in close cooperation with Singapore — which has one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, sourced from its export windfall revenues – in building human capacity and skills.

For telecoms-tycoon-turned-philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, it's one step forward, two steps back. For Benno Ndullu, governor of the central Bank of Tanzania, the whole thing is bound to stall unless problems are ironed out first.

For many Tanzanians, it's a threat to their jobs, language and prospects.

But for the leaders of the five-member East African Community (EAC), signing the common market protocol on Friday represents the future fortunes of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda combined.

Signing the document -- the culmination of a relatively speedy 18 months of negotiation -- will mean goods, services and the community's 126 million people can move freely across their borders, in theory at least.