Diane Karusisi is well placed to know what the future might hold for Rwanda and its banking sector, given her experience in both government policymaking and the private sector.
Between late 2012 and early 2016, she was one of President Paul Kagame’s closest advisers. As his head of strategy and policy and chief economist, she was intimately involved in shaping the government’s strategy for growth. Now, as chief executive of Bank of Kigali, Rwanda’s largest bank, she has first-hand knowledge of how the private sector fits into these plans and is forthright in her ambitions for the financial industry.
Rwanda and its banks can play an important role in spurring the financial and economic development of East Africa, she says.
“This is what we would like to be, a financial centre,” or hub for a neighbourhood that includes larger economies such as Kenya. It’s not such a far-fetched model – look at the role that tiny Singapore plays as the financial centre in Southeast Asia.
Under Kagame, who became president in 2000, Rwanda has been transformed. Outside Africa, what most people remember about the country are the shocking events of 1994, when the population was ripped in two and close to 1 million people were killed in the four-month-long genocide. Many who have never been there still think of it as a poverty-stricken, dangerous and desolate land.
This news was culled from Euromoney
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