Amazing Rwanda “Kagame says no to Aid dependency”

Rwanda is a good example of a country that is eager to get rid of Aid Dependency. Rwanda’s President has recently advocated for Africa to stop its dependency on Economic Aid from Rich countries. This is in line with Dambisa Moyo’s thesis that Aid is bad for Africa because it replaces Entrepreneurship with complacency and dependency. I largely agree with this notion. 

 Here are some excerpts from Jeff Chu founder of fast growing social media website FastCompany.com recent article on Rwanda.

Kagame’s strategy relies on wealthy and powerful friends to lure private investment, train a new generation of managers, build a globally competitive economy, and wean the country off foreign aid. Even as troubling questions remain about Kagame’s involvement in the region’s ongoing conflicts, this unpaid, business-savvy team is marketing the brand called Rwanda.

Just as the Asian Tigers arose as export-led, middle-income economies in the 20th century, Rwanda wants to become the African Gorilla in the 21st. It seems crazily audacious — and Rwanda’s leaders know it. “We’re trying to create a new model for fighting poverty. Nobody believes that it’s possible,” says éliane Ubalijoro, a researcher at Montreal’s McGill University who serves as a Kagame adviser. “How do you take a country that’s been through hell and bring it to security and prosperity? This is about healing, and this is about hope. We think it can be done.”

“No country can depend on development aid forever,” Kagame told Fast Company. “Such dependency dehumanizes us and robs us of our dignity.” It may also, of course, make him accountable to people outside Rwanda. Last December, following a United Nations report that Rwanda was supporting Tutsi rebels in Congo, the Netherlands and Sweden suspended $20 million in aid. Kagame slammed what he called the donors’ “arrogance” — then arrested the rebel leader and made a deal with the Congolese president. [read more]

This what Dr Dambisa Moyo has to say about Rwanda and President Kagame in the FastCompany.com Interview.

FC: So who are the leaders who are helping to make that happen, who are helping to “make the chocolate”?
Moyo: I really admire Kagame. He’s doing something against the grain, but he’s an anomaly. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson in Liberia is doing it to some degree. But that’s about it. I’m not very sanguine. That’s precisely why I’ve decided not to be a crusader. I’ve said what I have to say.

Read a brief written by John Karanja which includes President Paul Kagame advocating for end of Aid dependency. [click here]

Support President Paul Kagame sign the petition