President Paul Kagame called for a fairer look at investment in developing countries, saying assumptions about risk should not prevent viable projects from securing financing.
Speaking on November 2 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, Kagame questioned the view that investing in developing countries is necessarily riskier than investing in wealthier ones. Every investment carries risks, he said, regardless of where it is made.
He argued that the response should be to find ways to reduce those risks and finance projects that can succeed.
That would require closer cooperation among governments, businesses and financial institutions, as well as arrangements that allow them to share resources.
Kagame linked the need for investment to opportunities for young people. Countries need capital to grow businesses and create jobs, he said, while young entrepreneurs need the skills and resources to establish enterprises of their own.
He was asked about an entrepreneur in a small Commonwealth country with a potentially profitable project that investors hesitate to finance because of the country’s size, credit rating or limited access to capital.
Kagame said the project’s viability should be considered first. If it can generate returns, the obstacles to developing it can be addressed.
He pointed to cooperation between governments and the private sector as one way to close that financing gap. Such partnerships can help entrepreneurs secure the money, equipment and other support their projects need to grow.
A country’s size does not have to determine the size of the market available to its businesses, Kagame said.
When neighbouring countries make it easier to trade with one another, a project based in a small country can reach customers across a wider region.
Rwanda is part of the eight-member East African Community, which has a common market intended to ease the movement of goods, services and capital among its members. Kagame’s argument was that investors should consider that wider market when assessing a project’s prospects, rather than looking only at the population of the country where it is based.
He also placed responsibility on governments to create conditions in which investment can succeed.
Sound policies, effective institutions and cooperation with businesses can help projects obtain financing, operate and expand. He said Rwanda has worked to strengthen those foundations as it seeks investment that creates jobs.
The issue extends beyond any one country. Commonwealth figures show that five member states received 84% of investment flowing between Commonwealth countries from 2022 to 2024, while developing small states received just 1.5%.
The organisation says it is working with partners on more objective ways to assess investment risk.
The Commonwealth has also brought together project proposals from 20 developing member countries for discussion with investors and development partners.
Its latest pre-summit announcement valued the proposals at $34 billion. They are seeking financing; that amount is not investment already secured.
Kagame’s remarks brought the discussion back to the projects themselves: whether they can work, how their risks can be managed and whether access to regional markets can help them grow.
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